Hospitals plan flawed - people need to react
BORN in the Leicester General hospital in 1944 and reliant on the services of the NHS in Leicester and Leicestershire, I am pleased about the much-overdue £450 million government funding for the transformation of Leicester’s/Leicetershire’s hospitals, but I believe the proposals are flawed and a rethink is required before it is endorsed.
At last, the long-awaited consultation has been announced and is in the public domain, running from September 28 until December 21.
However, the promised leaflet to every household which gives information has yet to be received by me, nor many other people.
I am, however, reliably informed that you can view the consultation documents by logging on to:
It is 1,700 pages long but, essentially, it means the plan leaves two main hospitals – the Leicester Royal Infirmary and Glenfield – with the General closed as a critical care hospital.
Upwards of 80 services will be removed from the General to the other sites which leaves three or four main services remaining, one of which will be the diabetes centre, and another, the GP-led Evington Primary Care Centre, which may contain a midwife led birthing centre – but only for a 12-month trial.
A main driver, and necessary part of the £450 million plan, is the intended sale of the majority of the land at the General, unacceptably leaving no space for future development to cope with our ageing population.
I applaud the plans to bring all the children services into the LRI, but how much more can be located on a very cramped site which already has major access and parking problems and in an area of high air pollution.
Things are not much better at the Glenfield.
I was shocked to read in the Mercury on Monday, November 16 that on the previous Friday evening patients were left waiting for admittance to A&E for more than five hours outside, in 20 ambulances, because there were no beds inside.
The proposal claims to provide 139 extra beds by 2024, which is not adequate as clearly shown by the current lack of beds I mention above.
Furthermore, there is no consideration on how the plans can cope with the demand necessary to deal with pandemics and, while NHS managers claim in the media that they have coped well with Covid-19, they ignore the fact that little other urgent surgery has taken place, and practically no elective surgery or regular monitoring of medical conditions has taken place either.
Hospital staff are exhausted by the tremendous demand on their skills and the stress of working under so much pressure.
This has been made worse by the current low staff levels, and the inability to meaningfully recruit and replace the many leavers.
There does not seem to be any financial provision within the £450 million plans to cover the cost of the necessary increase of personnel.
It is intimated that any extra future accommodation needs will not be necessary as this will be covered by Care in the Community, but there are no actual plans to meet this already inadequate provision.
Another concern is the proposed closure of St Mary’s Hospital in Melton Mowbray.
People in the area fear having to travel to Leicester for maternity matters, with particular worries about traffic and delays at the time of birth.
The speculative birthing unit in the General has no plans for postnatal care, which is a strong caring feature of St Mary’s, much appreciated by mothers.
I am pleased to see that the Leicester Mercury Patients Panel and the Save Our NHS Leicestershire campaign group are expressing their concerns and suggesting how the plans can be improved.
I would encourage all readers to take time to consider the proposals and respond to the consultation. John Wallace, Groby