Don’t rush your reply to NHS consultation

The least we can expect for £450 million of public money is hospitals that are big enough

THE public consultation to reorganise Leicester’s hospitals began this week. These plans include closing Leicester General Hospital as an acute hospital and closing St Mary’s Birthing Unit, in Melton, concentrating maternity services at Leicester Royal Infirmary while providing a modest increase in the number of beds.

NHS campaigners are extremely concerned that the hospitals trust’s plans are out of date. In its 1,700page business case document it makes almost no mention of Covid.

We need flexibility in our hospital services to deal with a second wave. Selling off a large portion of NHS land does not do this.

These plans are worth £450 million. We welcome this money after years of underfunding, but it could be a long time before we get capital investment again, so getting it right this time is essential.

The public should ask whether a few dozen extra beds will be adequate for an ageing and growing population, especially when our hospitals face what used to be called black alerts (full to capacity) every winter. The least we can expect for £450 million of public money is hospitals that are big enough. We are also deeply concerned about proposals which offer only one guaranteed site for childbirth (except for home births). We think it is potentially dangerous to put all births on the site of the infirmary, a site which is frequently gridlocked with traffic.

For now, we are asking supporters and the wider public to delay filling in the consultation documents. The consultation will last 12 weeks. Use this time to read some of the documents, engage with the debate, hear what the trust has to say, as well as campaigners.

The campaign to challenge the trust’s plans has been ongoing for many years, but now they have the funding and the public consultation has started, we have limited time. To get involved in the campaign, e-mail: secretary@saveournhsleicestershire.org Tom Barker, on behalf of Save Our NHS Leicestershire