Hemel Hempstead Hospital

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www.SaveHemel.com
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Thank you to over 5900 people who added as friends of the Save Hemel Hempstead Hospital Campaign!
Whilst this campaign started as a campaign to stop the closure of Hemel Hempstead Hospital, it affects many more areas than Hemel Hempstead.Indeed it is also a campaign to save Watford and St Albans Hospitals. Whether through overcrowding from the potential closure of Hemel Hempstead, the time it will take to get to other hospitals or the reduction in hospital quality as officials move to centralise services to save money, we are all going to be affected.It is not just about Hemel Hempstead, Watford and St Albans, the reduction of quality of Hospital services will reduce the service quality of the whole county, Hertfordshire. The following towns are affected, whether due to their services closing, or being in the Hemel Hempstead Hospital catchment area: Berkhamstead, Tring, Abbots Langley, Kings Langley, Berkhamsted, Bovingdon, Chipperfield, Chesham, Tring. Also in close proximity are the towns of Hatfield, Amersham, Aylesbury, the list goes on.It does not stop there, there have been cases where people from Hemel Hempstead have had to go to London, because Watford could not cope, the issue has then affected the region.However, it does not stop there, this campaign is just one, very vocal campaign to stop what is an issue that is occuring all over the UK, closures in the name of saving money, not improving healthcare.
"We know what happens to people who stay in the middle of the road. They get run over". Without all of you who have used your chance to speak out, there will be nowhere to take those that have been knocked down. Save Hemel Hempstead Hospital.
Hemel Hempstead Hospital comprises both an Award Winning Baby Birthing Unit and a General Hospital, including an Accident and Emergency department. It serves a population catchment area of an estimated 200,000 people, with 81,143 of those in Hemel alone. Hemel Hempstead is also earmarked as a 'growth town', so this total can only go up, that is so long as people can get medical care.
The hospital is located in Hemel Hempstead, UK, a town well know for the fact that it recently blew up. The Buncefield Oil Depot Fire on 11th December 2005 occurred very early in the morning, we must ask ourselves - how would the reduced services at Hemel Hospital have coped if the entire office and industrial hub of the town had been at work at the time it exploded? Moreover, what if they were 30 mins - 1 hour away as Watford is? How would the whole region have coped?
The hospital has been continuously under threat by various attempt to close and relocate it for more than 30 years. Today, however, we see plans to relocate it outside of Hemel Hempstead, to be merged with Watford Hospital as a 'super hospital'. This time it is a very real threat with dates set. A recent consultation by the governing hospital trust that 'asked' the public what they wanted to happen to the hospital was a sham, we had to photocopy the few copies that were made available in a different town. Even after 84% of people voted for Option 2, the Hospital Trust have chosen option 1 vote for by 4% of those asked. Anyone feel cheated?
Watford has a population of 79,500 people, the catchment area is closer to 200,000 people though. Watford, amongst many things is well known for it's football club, Watford FC . On Saturdays, the football club has a population of up to 20,000 people. This makes traffic. In fact, if you ever have the pleasure of driving in Watford in rush hour, or on match-day you'd probably not envy an Ambulance driver! Hemel Hempstead is strategically located the other side of Watford FC's Stadium from the hospital.
This combined means a total of over 400,000 people to be served by one hospital that is up to 1 hour away from much of the population. 400,000 people is quite a lot of people, in fact Malta has a population of 400,000, Malta also has more than 1 hospital.
The plans don't just affect Hemel Hempstead residents. Watford services will be reduced in quality.
Massive thanks to Aarron from the Hemel Hempstead band Indra for designing and creating this banner for the campaign.
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