The Member of Parliament for Hertsmere, Oliver Dowden recently paid another visit to Watford General Hospital to meet with Chief Executive Officer, Matthew Coats and Chief Operating Officer, Mary Bhatti.

Following the Government announcement, confirming a fully funded new state of the art hospital on the Watford General Hospital site, Mr Dowden received a promising update on the progress of the development.

Mr Dowden was also shown a small model of the site to see what it will look like following its completion.

Following the visit, Matthew Coats, West Herts Chief Executive, said: “It was good to welcome local MP and Deputy Prime Minister Oliver Dowden to share our progress on the new hospital. With outline planning permission granted and a range of enabling work well underway, 2023 has been a year of significant steps forward.’

Mr Coats added: ‘Our designs are well developed and aligned with the national principles being set by the New Hospital Programme. As we move into 2024, we’ll be working with clinicians, patients and wider stakeholders to take the designs to the next level of detail.’

Mr Dowden said: ‘It was great to meet with Matthew and Mary to receive an update for the new Watford General Hospital.

I know that the Trust is continuing to work closely with colleagues in the New Hospital Programme to map out a timeline to the opening of the new facility, and I look forward to seeing this exciting project progress.’

Mr Dowden added: ‘Not only will the new hospital provide much needed services for our community, it will also be crucial in delivering the state-of the-art facilities that they and the staff deserve.’

Funding is also due to be released in the 2023/2024 financial year to develop business cases for external utilities to the site, cellular pathology relocation and phase 2 decant of clinical building for the new Watford General Hospital site.