Councillors agree - hospital needs to see sense over Urgent Care Centre

At the recent Council meeting Cllr Adrian England asked a question about the Hemel Hempstead Urgent Care Centre (UCC) night-time closure, which, far from being sorted in the new year, has in fact continued now for four months.

The Conservative Leader of the Council, Andrew Williams, agreed that it was unacceptable that the reassurances made prior to Christmas - that West Herts NHS Trust had "seen sense and realised how valuable it is for the people of Hemel Hempstead that there is 24-hour urgent care available in the town" - has not been followed through.

So, Dacorum is agreed that action is now needed to make progress with the UCC, yet clearly the matter had not been followed up since December.

Sally Symington, Parliamentary Candidate for the Liberal Democrats, said:
"More bluff and bravado and no action from Mike Penning MP. In December 2016 Penning claimed that he had succeeded in getting the West Herts Hospitals NHS Trust to 'see sense' and keep the Urgent Care Centre open 24 hours a day. Four months later it is still closed at night-time. It's a disgrace that he is doing nothing about it and, in his words, 'putting my constituents in real danger.' If I was Hemel Hempstead's MP I would meet with the NHS managers and continue to insist that they match their words with action."