£8m fund to remodel town health services

Changes proposed to health provision in the town

THE Government says £8 million will be made available to remodel health services in Hinckley.

The Department for Health and Social Care is to fund works which NHS officials say will make better use of existing space at Hinckley Health Centre in Hill Street and at Hinckley and Bosworth Community Hospital.

They say their changes will provide “a more patient–centred approach to care which focuses on providing modern, fit-for-purpose facilities to support more services in the community, and closer to home”.

Hinckley Health Centre will be refurbished to accommodate X-ray/ultrasound, physi- otherapy and increase the number of consulting rooms.

A combined day case surgery and endoscopy unit will be created at Hinckley Community Hospital with day-case beds, which will provide an increased range of day case procedures and cancer screening services for local patients.

The out-of-hours primary care service from Hinckley and Bosworth Community Hospital in the newly-developed Urgent Care Hub in Hinckley Health Centre will provide outof-hours care for patients.

West Leicestershire Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) boss Caroline Trevithick said: “This is fantastic news for people in Hinckley and Bosworth and is the result of a lot of hard work, including the involvement of local people who have helped shape our plans for the area.

“Some of the local buildings and facilities are not fit for purpose to meet the health care needs of people now and in the future. The investment means we can upgrade and improve facilities to ensure we can provide the highest standards of care quite rightly expected by people.

“The confirmation of capital funding means that, subject to NHS England approval, we will be able to consult with people on our plans. We will be looking to do this as early as possible in new year.”

Bosworth MP David Tredinnick said: “A lot of hard work from a lot of people has been put into the project to have an urgent care hospital at the Sunnyside community hospi- tal.

“This is a major step forward for healthcare in Hinckley and I congratulate everyone involved in the project so far.”

Hinckley and Bosworth Borough Council leader Mike Hall said: “Local health professionals have been committed to these improvements for several years, and they have done an excellent job in working to address public concern over the proposed changes.

“The CCG has always had my full support and I hope those who were against these proposals will now get behind them, support the recommendations, and trust the professionals to deliver improved health care for local people.”

Local Lib Dem health campaigner Mathew Hulbert said: “Any investment in the local health service is to be welcomed, but it doesn’t change the fact that West Leicestershire CCG, the commissioning body of local health services, has been told it’s got to find a further £20 million in savings, arguably another word for cuts, in 2018/19, having already had to find tens of millions in savings in previous years.

“Many patients fear that this will directly affect frontline services.

“Hinckley is set to lose the Mount Road community hospital even though there’s no commitment to replace it with the walk-in centre our growing population so desperately needs.

“As ever with this Tory government, what they give with one hand they take away with the other. “