Hopes of a new hospital for Harlow dealt huge blow as government “review” list published
Health / Fri 20th Sep 2024 at 02:37pm
HOPES of Harlow ever getting a new hospital have been dealt another blow as the goverment has offically announced which new hospitals proposals are under review and which ones are not.
Last month the chancellor of the exchequer, Rachel Reeves announced that there would be a review into the building of 40 new hospitals including one for the residents of Harlow.
In her Spending Inheritance Statement, the chancellor told the House of Commons that her philosophy was “If we can’t afford it, we won’t do it”.
Today, the Department of Health and Social Care has gone into more detail and twenty five proposed new hospitals are under review incuding the plan to build a new hospital for Harlow next to Junction 7a of the M11.
Twelve are not under review. That list is dominated by hospitals “infected” with RAAC and include a number in the east of England including: Hinchingbrooke Hospital, West Suffolk Hospital, Bury St Edmunds.
The document states: “The review aims to consider the options for putting the New Hospital Programme onto a realistic, deliverable and affordable footing. The review has been requested by the Chancellor of the Exchequer and the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care and will be jointly led and resourced across the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), NHS England and HM Treasury (HMT)”.
The review is not saying that the twenty five will not be built. It describes its terms of reference as follows:
“Key data will be collated for each of the hospitals falling within the scope of the review, including criteria around clinical outcomes, deliverability, cost and estate condition. Data will be drawn from existing sources where possible. Where the information is not held, or not up to date, further data may be requested from NHS trusts or regional teams.
The hospitals in scope will be prioritised according to the criteria. The review will look at the possible timelines for delivery for each scheme, along with clinical considerations, risk and cost profiles and present a range of options to be taken forward. Options and recommendations for phasing of the programme will then be established for ministers to consider.
The recommended options for scope, size and phasing will be supported by confirmation of the optimum approach for delivery, underpinning clinical assumptions and the associated commercial strategy.
For many, this may well be the time to hear what Plan B and Plan C look like. Other options may be to redevelop the present estate (re-build on the site in the style of Burnt Mill Academy) or assess the options of the proposed UKHSA site in The Pinnacles.
The full report can be read below.
Sharon McNally, interim chief executive at The Princess Alexandra Hospital NHS Trust, said: “We continue to work with the national New Hospital Programme team whilst the review is underway to determine the appropriate schedule for delivery of the schemes within the wider programme.
“Whilst further details are not available at this time, we are using the revised guidance from the New Hospital Programme team for New Hospital 2.0. to ensure our readiness to move forward with the scheme.
“The safety of our patients and people is paramount and this is supported by our building maintenance plans and keeping our hospital the best it can be whilst awaiting further updates.”
Juju
2024-09-20 14:52:49
Harlow desperately needs a new hospital as the old one is outdated and in poor state of repair. Why oh why do they keep adding to it and taking valuable parking spaces away. This hospital covers a huge area now and it is at breaking point with not enough staff, appointments being either cancelled or postponed or rescheduled due to the amount of patients it’s trying to help.
Resident
2024-09-20 16:28:42
I don't think anyone expected this hospital to actually happen. It's only ever been talked about with vague promises
NickL
2024-09-20 17:19:25
I understood the new hospital was expected to create a lot of passenger traffic on the new "sustainable transport system" in Harlow, and to some extent it was expected to create the revenue needed to finance the running of the STS. Without the new hospital I wonder if the STS will financially be viable. If not, there will be a significant increase in road traffic from the new developments to the east if Harlow.
charlie
2024-09-20 17:33:54
Well if it is the case that we will not be getting the promised new hospital, HGGT, Harlow Council, Chris Vince and the planners, along with Epping Forest Council need to get together, and scrap all the proposed new housing developments without delay. Going ahead is sheer madness. Thousands of new homes, which will bring in people from outside the area will put such a strain, on Princess Alexandra Hospital, which is just about coping as it is. Anyone with an ounce of sense can surely see that. But I don't expect the powers that be will think about the impact building these developments will have on the town and surrounding areas. Just where will people go when they need hospital treatment, as PAH will not be able to accomodate them.
Paul
2024-09-20 17:59:14
Charlie -spot on. Be nice to see the new MP do something. Of course the housing could go ahead - for people who are already residents and on the waiting list.
Stuart
2024-09-20 22:47:18
Charlie. Your point makes clear sense to me. No building without improved infrastructure. I wonder if the new housing developments will be under review? If one goes ahead without the other we are fools for letting it happen. I always thought the last MP who said it was great the "new hospital is going to be built" and then exited quickly and quietly was one of the sneakiest moves I've seen. He knew then that it was unaffordable, and this gave him a glorious exit which now looks like the other team have pulled the plug. It would seem that whoever is in power is only doing it to feather their own nest. Some of our elected want to make changes for changes sake, so they can leave a legacy and have their names scribed in history. Very rarely is anyone in it to actually make life better for their electorate. That hospital is knackered. There are people trying but it needs an overhaul. It is stressful visiting the place compounded by poor layout, poor parking, not enough room and an ageing structure. How are you supposed to heal when you have nothing but stress from each visit?
Tony
2024-09-20 22:49:00
well people always said be careful whot you wish for all how long can labour use the line it's worse than we thought whot were they doing in opposition
Seamus
2024-09-20 23:02:01
Totally agree Charlie. We have an ace card in pointing out that any increases on housing development will now be placed on hold till the infrastructure is in place. There is no reason why Harlow council cannot play hardball other than the lack of willingness to do so. Asking our mp to stand up for Harlow is a wasted expectation so it leaves it to Harlow council. No new Hospital, no new developments as it puts existing residents/patients at risk at Harlow hospital.
Mr Derek Clark
2024-09-21 05:58:40
You voted them in, and just like every time there in it's the same problem, no idea what so ever. So we can kiss the new Hospital good bye. Fact is the Labour party has no financial clout, you only have to look at who's in charge and she's got no qualifications to do the job. What a mess it's going to be and you voted for them.
Rob
2024-09-21 06:14:55
The hospital we have so desperately needed and promised several times over the last. 20 odd years looks like not going ahead….with a review of present facilities and how “they can develop the present estate “( which is already pushed for space ) where will that space come from now a huge chunk is of what is presently car park area for its staff has been planned for building housing. If it can be put to housing use why not put that on hold and build the new facilities needed. Financial short term gain again. As an aside staff now with nowhere to park ( starting very soon) are being forced to park 20 mins walk away through town in an already known insecure area …but it’s ok they are organising a “walking” bus where several can be escorted across town to their vehicles …madness. And who could guess the proposed ( now under review ) site for the new hospital will be way out of the town and the residents who need it …..crazy.
Julie
2024-09-21 06:26:35
New hospital would have been a fraction of the old one. Everywhere where nee hospitals have been built, key services have been dropped and privatised. Look at Epping, Bishops Stortford, Welwyn Garden City (QE2) to name a few. I will be happy if that is shelved and current hospital was improved. The Tories targeted NHS very badly closing down key hospitals and building mainly new outpatient hospitals and creating a pressure cooker situation. I am glad that hospital plans are under review. It will be better to upgrade current one and not build a new slimmed version of PAH.
Nostradamus
2024-09-21 07:56:02
Parking at PAH is a problem that can easily be solved build a multi story car park on site or nearby on the site of the soon to be demolished Terminus House. Transport to PAH could be covered by park and ride from the perimeter of the town and it has to be remembered that the new mass transport link from Hemel Hempstead to Stansted which has PAH on it's current site already included. If the areas of land wasted by single story car parking on the current site were used to build a high rise new PAH then it would make sense, the idea of rebuilding PAH in Epping district on the M11 (a road that famously gets closed or blocked) was / is never going to make sense for Harlow. Taking PAH out of the town will speed the demise of the town centre. Even better in addition to building upward on the current site ALSO add to the project by using the GSK Pinnacles site as a new additional hospital site with a new medical sciences research unit and medical school / university.
Reg
2024-09-21 08:19:37
Stand firm Harlow! No hospital no housing! Place all housing plans on hold till we have spades in the ground ie commitment from Government. I know Harlow people really need more housing but all that will happen is Labour will announce a glorious success for its building plans taking credit for the hard work of others. Time for Chris Vince to step up and defend the town for us all. Understand they’ve found 10 billion down the back of the sofa that should go some way towards it.
David Forman
2024-09-21 09:05:49
Perhaps, a senior Labour luvvie would like to explain what "commercial" means as used in the paragraph: "The recommended options for scope, size and phasing will be supported by confirmation of the optimum approach for delivery, underpinning clinical assumptions and the associated commercial strategy." Is this providing medical services for profit?
Tony
2024-09-21 10:59:21
Rachel Reeves, If the property developers, that you hold so close to your heart, can’t afford to build the new infrastructure, then we can’t afford them feeding off our town. “If we can’t afford it, we won’t do it”, as you might say.
Roy Fletcher
2024-09-21 11:34:08
Look on the upside. With the money saved they can give the train drivers a bit more
Carol
2024-09-21 12:42:55
We've been fighting the development of housing on the Gilston Park estate for over 30 years now. Surely this is the nail in the coffin - or at least it should be! We already have thousands more residents in Harlow & East Herts, but no new hospitals, GP surgeries or secondary schools! I have rung 8 hospitals in the district about an appointment following an accident and there are none to be had in the next 6 months! And that's just to be triaged!!! My brother in law has multiple cancers and can't even get an appointment for his scan results!!! No hospital, no more houses!!
Matt
2024-09-21 13:46:53
What an absolute joke, Harlow hospital was said to be the most in need as the government made the announcement there. I have worked there and they desperately need it !
David
2024-09-21 14:17:17
You are so right Carol. I’m reading an old article about Ropemaker from July 2006 which says - It acquired the land as an agricultural real estate investment in 1979. It first mooted development proposals involving 5,000 houses in the early 1990s but local government bodies rejected both these and a subsequent set of proposals for 18,000 houses. The “Stop Harlow North” campaign claimed the new development would put unacceptable pressure on local utilities and hamper regeneration efforts in nearby Harlow. Spokesman Nigel Clarke said: “This is the third time in 13 years Ropemaker have been told no. I hope they’ll now work with the community to use it as a green-belt resource.”
Nick Gunning
2024-09-21 21:09:16
The proposed new hospital was in the wrong place; next to a motorway junction, for heaven's sake! On leasehold land with no reliable connection to regular transport. The current hospital site could be developed progressively as suggested elsewhere here- plenty of prefabricated buildings which could be replaced by more substantial ones, and redundant facilities that could be replaced even more easily- it just requires imagination, which the current business consultants don't have. Property speculators have been drooling over the town centre site, while no progress has happened. Of course, the 40 hospitals plan was always a 'dead cat'. A displacement activity from other economic campaigns which the voters might not like. The hospital's been around for 60 years and needs an upgrade, not a transplant!
John g
2024-09-22 07:53:50
Oh dear,what a disaster,demoralised staff having to park 20mins way at terminus house of all places and walk to work in an English winter(wet and windy).An enept management,a union diving for cover and a hospital not fit for purpose.A grim future for the people of Harlow and surrounding areas. “Things can only get better”? NOT
Sodthisforalark
2024-09-23 08:45:03
We were never going to get a new hospital, it was spin to make us vote conservatives.
Peter Henegan
2024-09-23 09:43:12
Labour won because the country were pretty fed up with the conservatives. Do we really want our new Govt to be the same as the old one, in the case of the hospital, still promising it at some indeterminate date in the future. I would much prefer that the govt understands just what is needed before spending vast sums.. At the last count the land hadn't even been purchased despite the promise to start digging. Science impacts massively on medical care, it may well be that the type of hospital we have now will not be the hospital we need in the future.
Peter Henegan
2024-09-23 09:51:48
Derek Clarke you said " you only have to look at who's in charge and she's got no qualifications to do the job. What a mess it's going to be and you voted for them". Are you comparing her, Rachel Reeve, to Jeremy Hunt, they have the same degrees. She also has a Masters from the LSE . I believe she is actually one of the first Chancellors to actually have a relevant qualification . Perhaps that explains where we have gone wrong in the future. Mind you, Liz Truss is a qualified Accountant, that didn't go too well.
Novoman
2024-09-24 09:00:06
Development could start on the current PAH site immediately, the land is already there and so are the transport links, plus having a hospital in the town centre would help revitalize the town centre. Hospitals generate a massive footfall. Makes no sense to put it by the M11, mind you common sense was never a feature of the project, one could see that from the original plan, it was proposed that there would be a farm on the roof, presumably so one could see the flying pigs.
Nostradamus
2024-09-24 09:25:04
The problem with austerity v2 is that more cuts shrink the economy and dissuade investors, as shown with Austerity v1. The borrowing limit capped to GDP is a mythical lid on the country's economy, looking back borrowing has been as much as two and half tomes GDP and this enabled the country to grow out of recession. It's well known that growth is brought about by investment. You have to spend your way out of recession or a flat lined economy. If PAH mk 2 is dependent on 106 funding from property developers then this link is illogical, just as were the Public Private Partnerships of the Blair era. Harlow needs a new hospital to serve the town and the region as things are now so whether it's by taxing imposing a 1% tax on the top 10% or by getting the oil companies and those who avoid tax to pay up, the government should directly fund PAH just as it needs to again become it's own property developer to build ultra green new towns on the same lines as the New Towns Commission that built Harlow. Attacking pensioners and welfare as RR signalled yesterday is against all of the principles of the Labour Party and adding a few vacuous phraes to her speech to Conference about light at the end of the tunnel fails to recognise that it's a train not salvation
Mark
2024-09-24 11:02:36
Boris Johnson promised 40 new hospitals, but put aside no money to build them. Mr Halfon was happy to repeat the promise, election after election to boost his chances, even though he knew no money was available and the government hadn't even applied for planning permission for the new site. The lie has been exposed. Billions of pounds of public money was given away to Conservative donors, friends family members and even the local pub landlord that could have funded the NHS. The truth is Harlow's new hospital was a con job by the Conservatives. To blame Labour for telling the truth is madness.
Leave a Comment Below:
27 Comments for Hopes of a new hospital for Harlow dealt huge blow as government “review” list published: