Candlelit vigil held at threatened hospital
CAMPAIGNERS fighting to save the Victorian Mount Road Hospital held a candlelit vigil to celebrate more than a century of care.
Despite the bitter January weather the group was joined by members of the public who also lit candles in tribute.
One man lit a candle for his mother who had been a nurse at the hospital and had later died in the ward where she had worked.
The group have garnered much support in their protest over the hospital’s proposed closure with a petition of many thousands of names.
Lynda Gibbs from the Save our Hinckley Cottage Hospital group said: “The future of both our hospitals is even more unsure after the Government published their Sustainability and Transformation Plans (STP) - or to put it another way, slash, trash and privatise plans.
“Also, our neighbouring George Eliot Hospital is now under threat. The Warwickshire CCG spokesman is saying that nothing has been decided yet. Where have we heard those words before?”
She said although West Leicestershire CCG - which plans and pays for NHS care in the borough - says it has put in a funding application to NHS England for money to carry out changes, the public had yet to see the proof.
And she highlighted the case of Ashby-de-la-Zouch, who she said were promised service improvements but two years on and the local community hospital is up for sale and they now have to travel to Burton.
With pressures on the NHS showing no signs of abating she said: “There are nowhere near enough beds available and yet the STP plans are taking even more acute beds away.
“When will these nightmares end? When people are left dying in the streets? We are fast heading back to Victorian times, when only the rich could afford a doctor. I am sure Mr Beavan, founder of the NHS, has been constantly turning in his grave.”
The shake-up of services proposed by the CCG includes closing Hinckley and District Hospital in Mount Road, investing in a new endoscopy suite, theatre and day case beds at Hinckley and Bosworth Community Hospital on Ashby Road, establishing an urgent care hub at Hinckley Health Centre on Mount Road with X-ray, and offering more provision at home for patients needing rehabilitation and palliative care.
CCG chiefs say the Victorian Mount Road hospital is not fit for purpose and cannot be realistically updated to provide modern and future health care.