1,400 gazette ‘hands off Hemel’s Hospital’ invitations delivered by Penning and Gauke to Secretary of State for Health.

Mike Penning, MP for Hemel Hempstead, and David Gauke, MP for South West Hertfordshire, today braved the torrential rain to deliver in person 1,400 invitations from residents of Dacorum to Patricia Hewitt to visit the hospitals in Hemel Hempstead and Watford. The Gazette newspaper collected the invitations as part of their ‘Hand off Hemel’s Hospital’ campaign.

David Gauke MP, whose constituents include users of both the Hemel and Watford hospitals, said “The transfer of acute and emergency A&E services from Hemel to Watford is no longer just a Hemel issue. My constituents will suffer if the bureaucrats are allowed to cram the two busy A&E functions into an already overstretched Watford hospital. Waiting times will increase and people may die.”

Mike Penning, MP for Hemel Hempstead said “Patricia Hewitt needs to see for herself just how silly the proposals to run down the modern facilities in Hemel in favour of the dilapidated Watford hospital are. To even contemplate closing the Hemel facility without having invested in new roads and buildings at Watford can only be described as reckless.”

Photo: Gauke & Penning delivering the invitations to Whitehall.

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