A PETITION to save maternity services at Hemel Hempstead Hospital was launched by St Albans MP Kerry Pollard on Friday.
Standing outside St Albans City Hospital, Mr Pollard was joined by St Albans District councillors Robert Donald, Susan Carr and Dreda Gordon, representing all three parties on the council.
The decision to move acute services from Hemel to Watford General Hospital by the Hertfordshire Partnership Trust is "absolute nonsense", according to the MP.
He claims maternity and gynaecology units do not have to be moved with the special care baby unit (SCBU), although the trust has insisted all three are inextricably linked.
Mr Pollard said: "I think the consultants are driving this and they are doing it for convenience, rather than clinical need they can move SCBU without moving maternity.
"Three communities St Albans, Harpenden and Hemel Hempstead are being totally upset by this whole thing."
He is calling for a superhospital with staff training facilities to be built at Paradise Park, which joins onto the present Hemel Hempstead Hospital site.
Copies of the petition are available from the St Albans Observer offices.
October 23, 2001 18:00
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