Sharpe's Fox Posted 21 November 2016 Share Posted 21 November 2016 In Lutterworth, Melton Mowbray and Hinckley, apparently. Anyone affected by this? Three community hospitals in Leicestershire could be shut with the loss of hundreds of jobs as part of major cost-saving measures. A leaked copy of a draft NHS report obtained by the BBC calls for the closure of hospitals in Melton Mowbray, Lutterworth and Hinckley. A new midwife-only birthing centre may be opened at Leicester General. The NHS said it was still drafting its final proposals which would then be put to a full consultation. The BBC understands if all the proposed changes go ahead there could be an estimated loss of about 800 jobs, but with the creation of about 500 posts that would be a net loss of 300 positions. However, these figures have yet to be confirmed. The draft plan details how the trusts and clinical commissioning groups, which run services in Leicestershire and Rutland, intend to save about £400m from the health and social service budgets between now and 2020-21. Michael Mullaney, a Liberal Democrat county councillor in Hinckley, said: "We need increased health facilities, not reduced or even swapping them around to different sites." Karen Chouhan, of patient group Healthwatch Leicester, said: "We have to argue for quality as well as capacity, it's not just about putting more patients in one place and dealing with it that way. Patient involvement and consultation is really critical." It recommends closing St Mary's Hospital, (a midwife-led birthing centre in Melton Mowbray), Feilding Palmer Hospital in Lutterworth, and Hinckley and District Hospital, all following consultations. Meanwhile some community hospitals will be reduced in size, include the closure of the in-patient ward in Oakham. The General Hospital site will keep the diabetes centre and community health services. The report said: "Having three big acute hospitals creates problems, by spreading our specialist staff too thinly across the three sites, resulting in duplication and even triplication of services. "Through our reconfiguration programme, we will focus our emergency and specialist care at the Leicester Royal [Infirmary] and the General Hospital, whilst ensuring that appropriate clinical services are provided in the county's community hospitals, to offer care as close to home as possible." http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leicestershire-38031468 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darkon84 Posted 21 November 2016 Share Posted 21 November 2016 That's a bit shit in terms of the jobs, hopefully they'll be able to get transfers somehow. However, living between Lutterworth and Hinckley, I've never known a single person to use either of those places. Hell, I didn't even know Hinckley had one If people need the hospital around here, we're in the middle of the LRI, Rugby and Nuneaton and no-one I'm aware of has had any problems getting to or in at those places. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davieG Posted 21 November 2016 Share Posted 21 November 2016 Didn't we go through this with the Mkt Harboro hospital that they more or less closed and now they are re-opening/building a new one because it didn't work. I know they used to have one and now they're opening a new one http://www.harboroughmail.co.uk/news/new-hospital-will-be-a-landmark-building-for-market-harborough-1-7111478 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bayfox Posted 21 November 2016 Share Posted 21 November 2016 The amount of times they have tried to get rid of st mary's birthing centre at melton it is bound to go eventually, which is a real shame, my wife went back their after having both our kids, just for a night or 2 and the staff are brilliant, hope they would be willing to stay on if moved to Leicester, but it's a shame for those living over this way that they will lose the facility. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stripeyfox Posted 21 November 2016 Share Posted 21 November 2016 Melton hospital is a good facility, and relatively new - last 10 years or so. My mum spent the last few days of her life at Melton and not only were the staff brilliant, it was also a tremendous comfort to her to be in a smaller hospital close to home after spending a few weeks being bounced around the LRI and Glenfield. Edit. Didn't realise they were only talking about closing the birthing centre, not the main hospital. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bellend Sebastian Posted 21 November 2016 Share Posted 21 November 2016 4 hours ago, Bayfox said: The amount of times they have tried to get rid of st mary's birthing centre at melton it is bound to go eventually, which is a real shame, my wife went back their after having both our kids, just for a night or 2 and the staff are brilliant, hope they would be willing to stay on if moved to Leicester, but it's a shame for those living over this way that they will lose the facility. Yes, it is nice there. My wife was going to have our first baby there but an emergency caesarean put paid to that. She went back for a couple of days and they were great, but it didn't really give the impression of being that heavily used. Then again, we're used to NHS facilities being stretched to breaking point so it doesn't mean it's not still providing a valuable service Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Parafox Posted 21 November 2016 Share Posted 21 November 2016 5 hours ago, Darkon84 said: That's a bit shit in terms of the jobs, hopefully they'll be able to get transfers somehow. However, living between Lutterworth and Hinckley, I've never known a single person to use either of those places. Hell, I didn't even know Hinckley had one If people need the hospital around here, we're in the middle of the LRI, Rugby and Nuneaton and no-one I'm aware of has had any problems getting to or in at those places. Lutterworth, Melton and Hinckley (and Coalville) hospitals are Community hospitals which effectively means they only take mainly elderly admissions. They don't take acute or emergency patients so you would be unlikely to be aware of them unless you're in their category. There is a second hospital in Hinckley which carries out routine minor procedures and some outpatient work and that could probably close tbf. The community hospital closures would be a lot worse for patients in Leicestershire as they provide some outflow from the acute hospitals. Closure would directly affect major hospitals, in particular the LRI and, down the line A&E as it is the lack of community spaces already that causes delays in A&E and ultimately, people waiting on ambulances which in turn means there are fewer crews available to sent to emergency calls. Rugby St Cross only has a minor injuries unit in terms of A&E. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bayfox Posted 21 November 2016 Share Posted 21 November 2016 24 minutes ago, Bellend Sebastian said: Yes, it is nice there. My wife was going to have our first baby there but an emergency caesarean put paid to that. She went back for a couple of days and they were great, but it didn't really give the impression of being that heavily used. Then again, we're used to NHS facilities being stretched to breaking point so it doesn't mean it's not still providing a valuable service My wife started off their with our 1st and then went back after a trip to lri. And we moved from general with our 2nd as well. It's a lot more relaxed. Yes it's never rammed as far as I know. But so many people i know do seem to have used it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Webbo Posted 21 November 2016 Share Posted 21 November 2016 My wife's cousin went to Melton for her kids but she had complications with one of them and ended up being ambulanced back to Leicester while still in labour. We decided to stick with the General. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve_Walsh5 Posted 21 November 2016 Share Posted 21 November 2016 1 hour ago, Webbo said: My wife's cousin went to Melton for her kids but she had complications with one of them and ended up being ambulanced back to Leicester while still in labour. We decided to stick with the General. My girlfriend could have had our boy at Melton but chose against it. Good job she did as we had a little complication and would have had to be ambulanced back to Leicester. We used the General and all the staff were superb with us. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davieG Posted 21 November 2016 Share Posted 21 November 2016 Several community hospitals are to close along with a county birthing centre under radical plans to cut NHS costs across Leicestershire and Rutland. The sustainability and transformation plan (STP) published on Monday is aimed at slashing £400 million from the health budget over the next five years. It is estimated 1,500 hospital jobs will be lost by 2020 but the number of health workers in the community will go from 2,271 whole time posts to 2,505. The number of acute hospital beds will be slashed from the current 1,940 to 1,697 by 2020. Leicester's hospitals will move its services on to the Leicester Royal Infirmary and Glenfield Hospital sites. Hospitals set to fall victim to closure are Hinckley and District Hospital, which officials say is not "fit for purpose" to provide modern healthcare. Instead, some services will be relocated to Hinckley health centre. Read more: Leicester's hospitals declared 'internal major incident' Beds will close at Rutland Memorial Hospital in Oakham and the axe is hanging over the Fielding Palmer Hospital in Lutterworth. Heading the work is Toby Sanders, managing director of the West Leicestershire clinical commissioning group. Earlier this year, he described the plan as an extension of the programme known as Better Care Together. Mr Sanders said: "Over the past two years we have been focused on developing our services hand-in-hand with clinicians, patient representatives and our partners in local government as part of our Better Care Together partnership. "Our STP draws upon, and builds upon that work, and we will be sharing and discussing the details widely with people across our community to further inform and develop the plans over the coming weeks and months." Plans include beefing up the NHS 111 service, to be renamed a clinical navigation system, where clinicians working in the system will have access to patients' GP records and will be able to book them appointments with the right service. Read more: How much overseas patients owe Leicester's hospitals image: http://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/images/localworld/ugc-images/276308/binaries/28592071.JPG Fielding Palmer Hospital in Lutterworth It is hoped this will help make sure only the right calls go through to East Midlands Ambulance Service and in turn improve response times. Also on the drawing board is a scheme to make sure people can see a GP every day of the week from 8am to 8pm along with a 24/7 urgent care home visiting service. Urgent care centres will offer a range of diagnostic tests and medical expertise. The plan does not propose selling off the Leicester General Hospital. Instead, the Leicester Diabetes Centre will remain there, as well as the Evington Centre, providing community beds for city patients including a stroke rehabilitation ward. Leicester City CCG is also considering using the site as a GP centre providing extra hours and other services. Bosses have promised there will be formal public consultation on plans. It is likely back office jobs will be cut as the aim is no more than 7 per cent of income will be spent on them by 2018 and a reduction to 6 per cent by 2020. Deputy city mayor Councillor Rory Palmer, who chairs the health and wellbeing board, has been pushing for the STP to be published. He said: "There needs to be proper full public consultation on this. "It is also critical all relevant supporting documents and information are published, including workforce plans and financial modelling alongside the STP." New birthing centre could be created image: http://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/images/localworld/ugc-images/276308/binaries/4113207.JPG A new birthing centre could be created at Leicester General Hospital as part of the shake-up of NHS services across Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland announced this week. The plan – known as the Sustainability and Transformation Plan – outlines the likely closure of the St Mary's Birthing Centre, in Melton, as maternity and women's services are centralised at Leicester Royal Infirmary. Ian Scudamore, consultant obstetrician at Leicester's hospitals, said: "We want people to have choice and fair access to comprehensive, high-quality maternity services regardless of where they live in our region. "With about 10,500 babies born locally, our staff and resources are not being used effectively. This configuration can put pressure on services in one or more locations at any particular time – it is also not equitable for all mums and their families. "In our plans we are proposing that the hospital-based elements of the women's services, including gynaecology, neonatal care and maternity will all be available at one site – the infirmary. "Some outpatient appointments and procedures will continue to be available, or even increase in community hospitals, and midwives will continue to provide antenatal and postnatal care in the community." Read more: A look inside Leicester Royal Infirmary's new A&E department due to open next year Mr Scudamore said that, subject to public consultation, managers want to consider a standalone birthing centre and the most likely location would be Leicester General Hospital. He added: "This requires 350 to 500 births a year to be financially sustainable." At the moment, about 170 babies a year are born at St Mary's Birthing Centre. The proposed shake-up will see in-patient maternity services provided by midwives and doctors at the infirmary, supported by the neonatal intensive care unit in case of emergencies. There will also be a midwife only birth centre at the infirmary and home births will be supported by midwives. Mr Scudamore said: "Our priority remains to give women and their families a choice of safe, comprehensive, high quality services that are sustainable for the long-term." Read more at http://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/nhs-cost-cutting-plan-hospitals-and-county-birthing-centre-set-to-close/story-29922332-detail/story.html#qUV8q9TzOAPZEegW.99 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darkon84 Posted 22 November 2016 Share Posted 22 November 2016 16 hours ago, Parafox said: Lutterworth, Melton and Hinckley (and Coalville) hospitals are Community hospitals which effectively means they only take mainly elderly admissions. They don't take acute or emergency patients so you would be unlikely to be aware of them unless you're in their category. There is a second hospital in Hinckley which carries out routine minor procedures and some outpatient work and that could probably close tbf. The community hospital closures would be a lot worse for patients in Leicestershire as they provide some outflow from the acute hospitals. Closure would directly affect major hospitals, in particular the LRI and, down the line A&E as it is the lack of community spaces already that causes delays in A&E and ultimately, people waiting on ambulances which in turn means there are fewer crews available to sent to emergency calls. Rugby St Cross only has a minor injuries unit in terms of A&E. Ahhhh right, that would explain it then. Cheers for that! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Voll Blau Posted 22 November 2016 Share Posted 22 November 2016 Shame people don't see the value in these facilities in smaller towns. It's amazing how much happier patients (especially elderly ones) in recovery are when they can be rehabilitated close to home and not in the bigger hospitals where they've had operations etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Parafox Posted 22 November 2016 Share Posted 22 November 2016 9 hours ago, Voll Blau said: Shame people don't see the value in these facilities in smaller towns. It's amazing how much happier patients (especially elderly ones) in recovery are when they can be rehabilitated close to home and not in the bigger hospitals where they've had operations etc. The government don't give a monkeys about patient care or what is the best option for the individual. They care only about saving money, regardless of the effect that has on poorly, vulnerable, elderly people. They pay lip service to the elderly and patronise them beyond belief. The government. of whatever persuasion, HATE the fact the people live longer. The elderly population are a HUGE drain on government resources and ideally they'd like them to die younger. If they did that would be a sound financial gain for the NHS and the treasury but to admit that is absolutely impossible. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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