Crisis for hospital trust

Chief executive of the trust, David Law, revealed the depth of the organisation's financial woes at a public meeting in early August.

He said that failure to balance the trust's budget would be unattractive to private investors, whose money will be needed for the future redevelopment of Watford General Hospital.

He also said that if no action was taken the budget deficit could rise from £13m to £30m next year but added he was confident the budget would be balanced and determined that the new hospital would be built.

These comments were made in light of the fact that there is a 15-year history of hospital trusts overspending their budgets in this area.

Parliamentary spokesman for the Liberal Democrats, Sal Brinton, said: "This astonishingly large deficit at the trust must not put the new hospital at risk.

"The news that the likely deficit over a three-year period could be as high as £30m is extraordinary and very worrying.

"More than a third of our hospitals nationally are carrying large deficits but the Secretary of State for Health has said that the Labour Government will not bail them out'.

"If this large deficit is risking the chances of the new hospital it would be catastrophic for Watford.

"The Government must step in to help sort out the mess that our trust and many others find themselves in.

"They did it when they messed up the funding for schools two years ago; our health service is too valuable to mess around with."

Watford Conservative councillor, Sally Punter, said: "I'm not confident that the budget will be balanced without drastic cuts in the service.

"This trust has been under-funded for years; the Secretary of State for Health needs to sort it out and give the trust more money.

"These measures to rescue the service are too little, too late.

"If I ran a private company with this level of insolvency I would be in court by now."

She said: "I am also worried about the travel between sites if a new hospital is built in Watford.

"You can design a glory palace on the current site but if people can't get there it's no good.

"We need to be told exactly what services it will have and where we will have to go for what treatment.

"I want to know what we would be getting from this new hospital."

Chairman of Watford Green Party and health campaigner, John Dowdle, said: "I have no confidence that the trust will balance its budget.

"I do not think, however, that the building of a new hospital in Watford is the right thing to do, as it will be done under a private finance initiative that will cost the public purse more in the long run.

"Also, the plan will mean fewer beds and increased transport and pollution, which is something the trust needs to think about.

"I don't see anything wrong with having good, basic general hospitals in each of the trust's major urban conurbations.

"The situation in this area is unique and it is really up to the trust to go and ask the Government for more money.

"I am a governor at a Watford school and if we overspent as much as this trust has we would be in special measures by now."

Watford MP Claire Ward said that the trust had been given seven per cent more funds to spend on treatment this year but that the solution to its deficit problems is not to increase its funding.

She said the trust has to change the way it works.

She said that she has met with the Secretary of State and that she has made it clear that the Department of Health will do everything it can to assist the trust in balancing its budget.

She said: "Unless the trust starts to change the way it provides services it will not reduce its deficit nor implement Investing in Your Health."

She said that the best way to get a new hospital in Watford is to allow the trust to get on and continue the development of the proposed changes.