Topic ID 464
Can anyone tell me what Hertford Hospital is actually for? It's a huge building but what services are provided there? For example, my Wife is very pregnant but keeps being sent to Welwyn whenever she needs to see anyone as there is no staff at Hertford Hospital. I find it strange that a town of 25,000 and more if you include Ware does not have its own dedicated Ante/Post Natal Service. I may be missing something but I cannot see what this edifice to the taxpayers generosity actually does!
Reply ID 3942
If it's true there are no ante natal services at Hertford Hospital then that's terrible. I went there in 2001 for ante natal services and there was ultrasound equipment and everything there, the paint may have been peeling and the decor was dismal but I'd rather have gone there than treked over to Welwyn Garden City for every appointment. My husband took one of our children over to the emergency service one weekend there though recently and said it was brilliant.
Reply ID 3952
Carl, My wife is pregnant and we had the 1st scan in the old hospital and the second in the the new one. Very nice and clean with electronic sliding doors. Unfortunatly we have to go to Welwyn for the birth. I do also know that there is no A&E at Hertford. Other than that I do not know what else they do there, but there we lots of people in the waiting room when we were there.
Reply ID 3954
I believe HEMS is still based there. HEMS is not an A & E. It is an extension to the emergency doctor who might contact out of hours. With HEMS you can go and see a doctor on site out of hours. With a small child this has proved so valuable.
Reply ID 3960
HertsDirect describe it as "Out-patients diagnostic and treatment hospital". This includes physiotherapy, x-Rays, ultrasound, neurology, community mental health, trauma and orthopaedics. This isn't an exhaustive list.
Reply ID 3974
I have used the HEMS service there because our GP no longer opens on a Saturday...thanks Tony/Gordon. The ludicrous nature of the Natal clinic is this. I have just come back from spending the day at Welwyn and because of a delay to the procedure we needed, the doctor to perform the procedure had to be changed because, yes you guessed it, he had an appointment at Hertford. Also, my original rant was caused by a midwife at our GP in Hertford telling my wife (who is 8+ months) she had less than 15 mins to get to welwyn,park and get to the clinic for an urgent scan....oh yes and pick up our other child from school on the way. Reason? No one available at 3pm on a midweek afternoon in our shiny new (blue light free) hospital to do a scan.
Reply ID 3979
whilst we are on this subject......my mum has an ilness which has left her wheelchair bound, when she went to the 'new' Hertford Hospital to see a consultant she could not get through his door! it seems the whole of the new building has not catered for wheelchairs! how ridiculous is that! they seem to be more worried about the bloody exterior lighting.[:(!]
Reply ID 4003
I have a relation who works there, the door problem was known to the trust from the start. The reason is the standard size doors are (you guessed it) cheaper. According to my relation the new building has some very nice features it just seems that some important fundamentals have been overlooked.
Reply ID 4004
This is staggering for a brand new hospital! Even more so in the light of the new Disibility Discrimination Act, which is requiring 'public access' buildings - shops, banks, libraries etc., to make considerable changes to ensure they are accessible by disabled people
Reply ID 4006
Who made the decision? The Trust or the PFI consortium who built and own it?
Reply ID 4009
Phaps they should have just knocked the lot down and built some more houses? (Contraversial)
Reply ID 4010
quote:I suspect we might yet be seeing that with the now disused part of the site! Walked past there yestereday & they're bulldozing pre-fab type buildings behind the old hospital.
Originally posted by Victor Meldrew
Phaps they should have just knocked the lot down and built some more houses? (Contraversial)
Reply ID 4011
Yes correct, they plan to keep the facia of the old Hospital and build appartments behind.
Reply ID 4020
Personally, my needs have been met by the new hospital: bloodwork, antenatal scans, and the after hours GP visits for my daughter in the middle of the night and on a holiday. All quickly and easily performed. But I find NO excuse for a hospital of all places to not be wheelchair friendly. As a nurse, that has my full disgust. I agree that it would be wonderful if it could provide more services to Hertford folks so the trip to the QE2 wouldn't be required as much as it seems to be now. Are there plans down the road to expand services?
Reply ID 4032
I believe the company who built the new hospital have worked on several similar projects in the past............how could the issue of door sizes not have arisen before?
Reply ID 4039
Very probably, but their whole motivation is to make money, therefore cut costs now and charge high rent for years to come (or even better, flog the whole deal to a bank).
Reply ID 4134
We had our 2 ante-natal scans at Hertford (just before they opened the new building), but then had to go to WGC because they had a better ultrasound scanner (it took 4 goes to do the scan eventually). They have most of the out-patient clinics at Hertford and you can also have your blood tests done there.
Reply ID 4283
I'm happy still to have a hospital in Hertford. Lots of people seemed to fight quite hard to keep a presence. Some even fought hard to heep the front of that old monument that is the old County Hospital. The new one performs vital functions that frees up resources elsewhere - like my blood tests today. And we've used HEMS, who are vital. Can't say I'll be sad to see the QE2 go. It's a disaster area these days. Roll on the new super hospital in Hatfield, due in about 3 years time.