Separate Wigston from Oadby in any lockdown

community services can keep people out of hospital – a lesson not lost during Covid.

Although A Health Plan for Rutland was welcomed and an official local plan for Rutland was promised in January, here we are nine months later with nothing published.

Consultation is planned to start at the end of September on the proposals to combine three hospitals into two.

The PCBC tells us if Rutlanders find difficulty travelling the extra distance to the infirmary or General, they can go elsewhere.

Peterborough and Kettering are not equivalent options. They are not teaching hospitals like Leicester which offers secondary and tertiary (specialist) care.

It is imperative Rutlanders are given good-quality information to know what they are being offered in order to make informed decisions.

Alternatives are possible but must be made explicit before consultation commences. We urge Rutlanders to seek that information and we urge you to describe what you plan in the community before they are asked to respond.

This will be the biggest change to health services for Rutlanders in many generations and cannot be reduced to a tick box exercise.

To give an example of problems with the PCBC, you have used a computer package to assess travel times and conclude it will only involve an increased journey of 10 minutes.

Rule of thumb for most Rutlanders is 40 minutes to the General and 90 minutes to the infirmary.

As we pass the outskirts, we soon find out why Leicester is the 10th most congested city in England.

Many older people will not even try to drive to either hospital and taxis are of the order of £100.

CCG staff are always welcome in Rutland but there has been only one meeting to discuss the proposals.

Glossy artists’ impressions were presented but no detail, then discussion was cut short before questions could be answered.

On maternity, most of the public engagement took place in Leicester.

There was one event on July 17, 2015 in Rutland but only six members of the public (and no mothers) were involved.

Rutland people have not had an adequate say in the redesign of maternity services serving Rutland.

We look forward to constructive discussion of very serious changes and we hope you are willing to supply the whole picture of where these changes fit into the wider picture.

The Rutland Consortium

AGAIN the threat of a local lockdown is given to us.

But looking at the cases in each area, Oadby had 46 new cases from September 5 to 12. In that time, Wigston has had 26.

Wigston’s population is 8,000 to 9,000 more than Oadby.

Oadby and Wigston should be classed separately.

Oadby’s high number of cases was the cause of the borough not being released from Leicester lockdown in mid-July.

This was the problem that angered Wigston residents.

It is relatively easy to separate Oadby and Wigston, as it has two postcode areas – LE2 and LE18.

If Oadby has high cases, lock down addresses with LE2 while leaving the Wigston (LE18) residents out.

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