Campaigners are stepping up calls for a new hospital in Lutterworth

Furious campaigners are stepping up calls for a crucial new cottage hospital in Lutterworth.

They are calling for a multi-million pound facility to be built on the site of the Feilding Palmer Hospital on Gilmorton Road, Lutterworth.

Activists are demanding action after the 121-year-old hospital was temporarily closed earlier in May amid the Covid-19 menace.

Outraged Mary Guppy, who has fought for years to defend the Feilding Palmer Hospital, told the Harborough Mail: “We have been campaigning for ages to protect our cottage hospital and keep it open.

“We were shocked to say the least when it was suddenly shut a few weeks ago.

“The decision came totally out of the blue and we fear the Feilding Palmer may never open again.”

Mary, who was born at the 10-bed Victorian hospital, added: “The hospital has been brilliant for many thousands of people all over the Lutterworth area over the decades.

“But it is well over 100 years old now and it’s starting to show its age.

“So we badly need a new hospital to serve people over here – I’m very passionate about this.

“Ideally it will be built on the Feilding Palmer site.

“But if not then elsewhere in Lutterworth.”

She said the £7.5 million St Luke’s Hospital in Leicester Road, Market Harborough, could point the way forward after it was opened in May 2017.

“St Luke’s is a fantastic hospital and just what we need.

“We should have a local hospital for local people,” insisted Mary, of South Kilworth.

“My mother, Lucy Hill, spent three months at Feilding Palmer Hospital at the end of her life.

“My father George used to go to see her on his scooter almost every day.

“Now he wouldn’t have been able to go and see her if she had been at Leicester Royal Infirmary or a hospital in Coventry, for example.

“We have thousands more new people moving into Lutterworth and the surrounding villages all the time.

“We seriously need a modern, fully up-to-date cottage hospital to serve and look after all of us.”

Dedicated Mary and her equally-committed supporters are being backed by Cllr Phil Knowles, a veteran Harborough health campaigner.

Cllr Knowles, who leads the Liberal Democrat group on Harborough District Council, told the Mail: “I am fully behind Mary’s battle to secure a new cottage hospital.

“It took us 30 years to have St Luke’s Hospital opened in Market Harborough.

“But now it is here it’s worth its weight in gold.”

He added: “The people of Lutterworth and beyond desperately need a state-of-the-art hospital fit for the 21st century.

“How can older people who are self-isolating there suddenly hop on a bus and travel to a hospital in Leicester or Coventry?

“They cannot.

“The NHS has to look at this issue urgently.

“They have the perfect template and a proven blueprint in St Luke’s to build a new cottage hospital in Lutterworth.

“The advantages would be huge and it would be folly to lose this glorious opportunity.”

A Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust spokesman said: “We run the Feilding Palmer Hospital.

“But it wouldn’t be down to us to decide about replacing it.”

He said the 19th century hospital was shut for operational reasons as “its structure and layout means that safe social distancing on the ward cannot be maintained” amid the coronavirus pandemic.

East Leicestershire and Rutland Clinical Commissioning Group has been asked for a comment.