LibDem Research highlights QEII in top ten of most-threatened hospitals in England

1.47.30pm BST (GMT +0100) Tue 1st Aug 2006

A report issued last week by the Liberal Democrat research team has identified the East & North Herts Trust as being the 7th most at risk in the country for further cuts or even closure. Our neighbouring trust (West Herts) came out as the most at risk of all the 152 trusts analysed, which was limited to hospital trusts with all round acute services.

The research team looked at a multitude of factors in compiling the analysis, for example, Department of Health estimates of efficiency, the star rating, the provisional deficit for 05/06, the proximity of the nearest hospital, the cumulative deficit, the PCT deficit in the area and various other factors.

The current list of services at the QEII - how many are threatened?

Cllr Nigel Quinton, local spokesman on health issues, said: "It may be stating the obvious in the light of current job cuts but this just underlines the high degree of threat hanging over our local hospital. The finances of the Trust are a mess, mostly thanks to central government policies, the interim plans that were supposed to address this are in tatters, and the promise of a new Hatfield Hospital seems very unlikely to be delivered. It is vital that all parties now combine to fight for the maintenance of our local hospital services. We shall be calling on the Borough and County Councils to prioritise this issue as a matter of the greatest importance."

The national report notes that the government has little idea of the difficulty hospitals were under, nor the extent of the deficits. It noted the hectic pace of NHS reform which makes sound financial planning almost impossible, and the complete lack of local accountability in the way the NHS is being reorganised. Lastly the report highlights the refusal of the government to take responsibility for the problems it has caused.

Liberal Democrat policy is to give local people a real say over their health services by decentralising decisions to democratically accountable LOCAL bodies - unlike the unelected, unaccountable regional framework this government is imposing.

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Liberal Democrat Shadow Health Secretary, Steve Webb MP.