NHS Services (Hertfordshire)

That is absolutely right. There is a broader issue. To open out the debate for a moment, Hertfordshire is just one example of a county in south-east England that is facing great difficulties. We could consider Surrey, Sussex, Norfolk, Suffolk and parts of London and we would find that the difficulties are concentrated in the south-east, in the areas that receive below average per capita funding. There must be a question about the formula. I gave advance notice to the Minister and hope that she will be able to address the issue of the formula that is used in Hertfordshire and whether there are any plans to change it, as it seems to me that there is something wrong with the balance. I can see the argument that deprivation might be a factor, but the balance does not seem to be right when there is such a concentration of deficits in counties such as Hertfordshire. I come now to the changes that we are debating. PCTs are having to undertake substantial cuts. A front page story in the Hemel Gazette today concerns a letter leaked from a GP in my constituency highlighting that there might well be cuts in district nurses and health visitors in Dacorum PCT. Mental health, too, is an area of enormous concern. I want to pay tribute to my hon. Friend the Member for Broxbourne (Mr. Walker), who cannot be in the Chamber today because he is in Scotland on Select Committee business, because he has undertaken two Adjournment debates and worked tirelessly to raise the profile of the matter. Hertfordshire Partnership NHS Trust must reduce its spending by 5 per cent.—£5.6 million—despite never having been in deficit because the PCTs require it. We are seeing substantial cuts and both in-patient and out-patient services are suffering as a consequence. Another area that has been particularly affected is that of sexual health services. I hope that my hon. Friend the Member for St. Albans (Anne Main) will catch your eye, Mr. Hancock. She has worked tirelessly in this field and highlighted the many difficulties we face. The issue of hospitals is perhaps the most emotive and the one that concerns my constituents maybe more than any other. Both of our hospital trusts are in deficit: East and North Hertfordshire NHS Trust has a deficit of £22.38 million and has announced 500 job losses, while my hospital trust, West Hertfordshire Hospitals NHS Trust, has a deficit that is even greater at £28.38 million and has already incurred about 250 job losses, with another 500 or so to go. In total, Hertfordshire hospital trusts will lose 1,250 jobs, and we are talking about not only administrators but health care professionals—doctors and nurses—whose jobs will be going as a consequence of the cuts. I want briefly to give some history of the development of hospital services in west Hertfordshire. A few years ago, there was a process called ““Investing in Your Health””, which considered the reconfiguration of hospital services in west Hertfordshire. It concluded that the way forward was to downgrade Hemel Hempstead general hospital to a non-acute site. That caused enormous concern to people in Hemel Hempstead and beyond, in my constituency and places such as Berkhamsted and Tring. My hon. Friend the Member for Hemel Hempstead (Mike Penning) has worked tirelessly to defend Hemel Hempstead hospital and has been a champion of the people of Hemel Hempstead on that point. The conclusion was reached that Watford general hospital would be redeveloped and that acute services would be moved from Hemel Hempstead. I do not intend to re-open that debate, but I can fully understand why people who use Hemel Hempstead are worried about services being more distant. There was one consolation at the time of ““Investing in Your Health””, which was that there would be a fantastic new hospital at Watford, and that services would not be moved until that hospital was built. The reality, however, will be somewhat different. Services are on the move already. The birthing centre in Hemel Hempstead has closed, as has a ward for elderly patients, and there is more to come. Services have already been transferred to Watford, a hospital that I know well as I have had two children born there. Nobody, however big a fan they were of Watford, could say anything other than that it is a poorly designed site with outdated buildings, which is cramped and has little capacity. It is right next to Vicarage Road football ground, which I am pleased to say will be a premiership ground next season and is also used by Saracens. To get to the hospital on a match day is almost impossible, and even not on a match day it is difficult because transport links are not good. However, it is proposed that more services should be moved to Watford now. I know, having asked the chief executive of the hospital trust, that during the course of the winter there were a number of occasions when notes were sent out to doctors, GPs and primary health care providers that Watford hospital was, effectively, full. That was in the winter and came before the closure of many of the acute services at Hemel Hempstead and their transferral to Watford. How on earth will Watford cope in the interim period? By spring 2007, virtually all Hemel’s services will be gone. One might say that it is only an interim period of six years, but there is now severe doubt that we will get the new Watford hospital at all. It is supposed to be there by 2013. I will be grateful if the Minister can throw some light on the process. I know that one of her colleagues answered a parliamentary question on the subject in June, but it seems that we may have to wait some time before finding out whether the private finance initiative for Watford is to proceed. I sincerely hope that it will, because without it we will have the worst of both worlds, with Hemel losing its services but with no new facilities being made available for anyone in west Hertfordshire. I am greatly concerned about the matter, and I must ask how it has progressed. Not long after being elected to this place last year, my hon. Friend the Member for Hemel Hempstead and I met the chief executive of West Hertfordshire Hospitals NHS Trust and its then chairman. At that point they were already talking about bringing forward the reconfiguration of hospital services from 2013, because word had come from the strategic health authority that deficits had to be reduced; there had been a change of focus. Indeed, the same would have been said by the primary care trusts—that there had been a change of focus last year. I have given the Minister advance warning about my question, but when precisely did that change happen? I have been here only a year and I hope that I am not becoming a cynical politician, but we heard little from the Government before the last general election about the need to balance the books and to reduce the deficits. That change of focus seemed to occur, almost to the day, immediately after the general election. That is something that the Government must answer. Before the last general election, Labour had five marginal seats in Hertfordshire; it now has only two—and I hope the number will fall. None the less, the Government seem to have changed their focus. I should be grateful if the Minister answered that point.