JIBES and shouts filled Dacorum Borough Council offices in Hemel Hempstead on Thursday, October 18, as health chiefs came face-to-face with public opposition to their decision to move the town's maternity services to Watford.
Chaired by health watchdog the North West Herts Community Health Council the meeting, which saw people forced to stand, gave protesters from St Albans and Hemel Hempstead an opportunity to put their concerns directly to the decision-makers.
In a highly-charged atmosphere, speakers broke down in tears as they argued the case for the retention of the Special Care Baby Unit (SCBU) and in-patient maternity and gynaecology services at Hemel Hempstead General Hospital.
Facing the angry crowd were panel members Ms Rosie Sanderson, chairman of the West Hertfordshire Hospitals NHS Trust, the trust's medical director Howard Borkett-Jones and chairman of the Herts Partnership Trust Bill MacIntyre, who faced a barrage of questions and demands from St Albans MP Kerry Pollard, representatives of St Albans District Council, the National Childbirth Trust, midwives, nurses and parents.
Defending the partnership trust's decision to move SCBU to Watford, because of what he described as "major concerns about the level of clinical risk" Mr MacIntyre argued "safety" was the primary concern and that a "cluster of incidents" had already occurred in the unit in July, putting babies at risk.
He also reiterated that this was a "temporary closure", which along with the movement of maternity and gynaecology services, would go before public consultation in the spring as part of a wider review.
This message was underlined in a statement from the West Hertfordshire Health Authority. It said: "Children's services and the A and E department at Hemel would also be unaffected by these plans", a message reinforced by Ms Sanderson despite derision from the crowd.
And while speaker after speaker raised concerns about negotiating Watford's one-way system and the hospital's lack of parking, Ms Sanderson replied with promises of a new access road to the hospital and a new multi-storey car park, fanning protesters' anger at what they described as the most permanent of temporary closures.
October 23, 2001 17:57
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