How public could be consulted on hospitals revamp
Plans would see Glenfield Hospital’s footprint increase by a third
HEALTH bosses have revealed the questions they want to ask patients and the public about their proposed £450 million revamp of services.
Suggested questions contained in a draft document drawn up by Leicester’s hospitals will be debated by city and county councillors, with the public consultation expected to start shortly after the wording of the questions is agreed.
It was announced in September that the Government had awarded Leicester’s hospitals the £450 million it wanted to redesign services.
The three flagship projects would be a new £138 million stand-alone treatment centre at the Glenfield
Hospital site, an £88 million maternity hospital on the Leicester Royal Infirmary site and the extension of the infirmary’s Kensington Building to house a £35 million children’s hospital.
The draft document states that the plans would see Glenfield Hospital’s “footprint” expand by almost a third.
It also reveals more about the downgrading of the General hospital, which would “no longer (be) an acute hospital with inpatient beds instead, it would be developed into a smaller campus that focuses on community health”.
Other projects detailed include building new car parks at both the LRI and Glenfield.
It also raises the possibility of introducing Skype and “virtual appointments” to “reduce the stress of attending a consultation”.
The questions health bosses want to ask are based on seven statements. Following each one, respondents are asked to what extent on a scale of 1-10 they think the suggestion is a good solution for people in Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland. They are then invited to give details on the impact it would have on them.
The statements are as follows:
■ We want to improve services by moving all our acute clinical services on to two of our three hospitals sites, Leicester Royal Infirmary and Glenfield Hospital.
■ We want to continue to provide the following non-acute services at
Leicester General Hospital – the diabetes centre of excellence and GP imaging (for example, X-rays), and move stroke rehabilitation to the Evington Centre.
■ We would like to create the following services at the General Hospital: Primary Care Urgent Treatment Centre; observation area; diagnostic service providing appointments for people to have a test or simple procedure; community outpatients service and potentially extra primary care capacity to provide family health care to people living in the east of the city.
■ In addition to the current units, we want to provide kidney haemodialysis in a unit at Glenfield, as well as in a unit located to the south of Leicester.
■ We want to arrange with service users alternative options for the provision of a hydrotherapy pool, currently located at the General. We plan to use alternative hydrotherapy pools already located in the community, providing more care closer to home.
■ We propose creating a new maternity hospital at the infirmary. This will require moving all maternity and neonatal services from the General to the infirmary.
■ We plan to relocate the maternity unit at St Melton.
■ We want to test if a new standalone, midwifery-led unit located at the General would be used by expectant mothers, if appropriate to individual circumstances. standalone Mary’s,