A DECISION that will determine whether a new hospital is built in the district will be made at a crucial meeting early next month.

Six months of consultation on the Investing in Your Health document will end on November 3 when a special committee will decide the future of health services across Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire.

This newspaper has been backing Option Two which could see a new hospital built just inside St Albans on Green Belt land off Roehyde Way.

MP Kerry Pollard and St Albans district councillors have backed the site, arguing that it has the best transport links and the site needs redevelopment. A second site on former British Aerospace land in Hatfield is also being considered.

Mr Pollard said: "The proximity of the Roehyde Lane site to the University of Hertfordshire will make it easier to argue for a medical school. The excellent road system will mean there is less pressure on infrastructure."

Option Two would also see Watford General Hospital keep its emergency services, the busiest in west Hertfordshire. Planned surgery and low-risk patients would be cared for at Hemel Hempstead Hospital and the Lister in Stevenage.

Option One would see a reduction in emergency services, a surgicentre for low-risk operations and low-risk birthing units at the the QEII and Watford hospitals. There would be no new hospital in Hatfield, leaving much of south east Hertfordshire without emergency services. Hemel Hempstead Hospital would be re-developed and include emergency services and a cancer centre.

The Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire Strategic Health Authority (SHA) says the consultation has been the most comprehensive it has carried out.

Chairman Ian White said: "I urge anyone interested in health services to come to the meeting and hear the case for the biggest decision ever to affect the NHS in both counties.This is an opportunity to hear how health services will be shaped and to ask questions."

The committee, meeting at the Odyssey Centre in Stevenage at 10am, is made up of representatives from primary care trusts from across both counties and the SHA.

Contact Andrea Cunnington on 01727 792803 to book a place.