Petition to save hospital handed over
Combined amount of names now at 9,225
A PETITION aimed at saving Hinckley’s Mount Road Hospital from closure has been handed over.
The document, with 5,730 names, was delivered to representatives of Hinckley and Bosworth Borough Council.
It will be forwarded onto NHS chiefs once consultation on changes to health services in Hinckley gets underway.
The clinical commissioning group (CCG) for the borough is looking to redesign care, making more use of the health centre and the community hospital on Ashby Road.
Bosses say the Mount Road cottage hospital is not fit for purpose and would be too costly to bring up to standard for anaesthesia and cancer screening.
However, local campaigners are determined to fight the proposal, feeling the town needs services on that site.
Lynda Gibbs from the Save our Hinckley Cottage Hospital Action Group said she was proud to have handed over the petition.
She added: “I would like to say a personal thank you to all the campaign team who have been out on the streets helping me to collect signatures. We would like to thank all the residents of Hinckley and Bosworth who have supported this fight by signing one of the two online petitions or the one on paper.
“For all the people who have come and taken a genuine interest in hearing about the fight, and why we are so passionate about saving our hospital and its services.”
At present, the paper petition stands at 5,730 and the bulk of the document has been handed in, more sheets are to be collected.
Added to that are the online figures from the 38 Degrees site of 1,491 and the original Government website, running at 2,004, giving a full total of 9,225.
Campaigner and county councillor Michael Mullaney (Lib Dem Hinckley) said: “This demonstrates the enormous support for maintaining the Mount Road Hospital in Hinckley. The Hinckley urban area, including Burbage, Barwell and Earl Shilton has one of the biggest population concentrations in Leicestershire. It is also a growing population and needs improved, not reduced, NHS services locally.
“I hope the CCG will listen to the huge reaction from the Hinckley area and accept that we need either to maintain and modernise the Mount Road hospital or we need a new walk-in centre or minor injuries unit to serve the people of the Hinckley area.”
The last opportunity to sign the paper petition will be this Saturday when members of the team will be in The Britannia Centre, Hinckley from 10am to 2pm.