Enhance hospital - don't close it
Published: 9:42 AM November 5, 2009
A GP has urged health bosses to enhance the services on offer at Royston Hospital – not close the site. Today The Crow launches its Hands Off Our Hospital campaign, in a bid to convince the North and East Herts primary care trust (PCT) to maintain this vi
A GP has urged health bosses to enhance the services on offer at Royston Hospital - not close the site.
Today The Crow launches its Hands Off Our Hospital campaign, in a bid to convince the North and East Herts primary care trust (PCT) to maintain this vital community facility.
As we revealed exclusively last month, the future of the hospital is shrouded in mystery after the PCT blocked plans for a �250,000 day room because "it would be in use for very little time".
A meeting between the PCT, the Friends of Royston Hospital, and other stakeholders, including Royston MP Oliver Heald, has been scheduled for November 16, and it is hoped that details of the site's fate will be revealed.
Dr Peter Gough, from the Market Hill surgery, will be attending the meeting.
He said: "Local clinics providing the sort of services which can be accessed at Royston Hospital are being developed all over the country, so it's certainly a facility we would want to enhance, not lose."
Dr Gough said that he believes the way medical care will change in the future means that clinics like Royston Hospital can offer preventative care, helping people avoid long stays in bigger hospitals.
He said: "Royston Hospital is great at providing quick intervention for patients, and I think it can be used in this manner going forward.
"We'll just have to wait until this meeting happens to see what the PCT has planned."
Meanwhile Mr Heald has discovered an imbalance in the number of intermediate care beds - the type which are currently found at Royston Hospital - in the two halves of Hertfordshire.
The East and North Herts PCT, which includes Royston, has 127 of the beds, while the West Herts PCT has 187.
The MP said: "I was surprised to discover that we have so few intermediate care beds in our half of the county. Why is there a question mark over Royston Hospital when we have so few in our part of the county?