Caution urged over city hospitals proposals
THE prospect of some good news is always welcome but NOT when we have been there before and the grand plan fell apart.
I was a clinical director at Leicester General Hospital Trust for some of the years of the massive reorganisation of hospital and services leading up to a merger of LRI, LGH and Glenfield into the University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust.
The hospitals agreed a “common statement of agreed aims and values” with the aim of becoming the hospital of choice for patients and staff.
They had considered moving on to a 2+1 set-up of hospitals admitting emergencies (one of which should be LRI) which led to protests that Glenfield might be a non-emergency hospital. The proposals did not go away and led to the “Pathway Project” aimed at reconfiguring the hospitals and services from about 2000.
That would see rebuilding on a grand scale with an initial capital cost of £760 million for the three sites and almost total demolition and new building of the General.
The combined costs rocketed to a total of £2.8 billion for a 30-year project and the plans were cancelled (or at least put on ice) until the next great plan.
I find it hard to imagine the latest proposals will not suffer the same cost pressures and Leicestershire would lose a significant number of beds and facilities during the process. I would urge great caution before going down this route.
Dr E H Mackay, Retired Consultant
Pathologist, LGH 1978-2003