Less than a month to have your say on new healthcare services in Lutterworth

Residents are being reminded there is less than a month to have their say on changing healthcare services in Lutterworth.

A consultation is currently being held by the NHS in Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland (LLR) about plans to remove all inpatient beds at Lutterworth’s Feilding Palmer Hospital and provide outpatient services instead.

Healthcare providers say the local population is expected to grow by 40 per cent over the next ten years and there will be higher demand for hospital services.

It is now looking to replace the ten current inpatient beds – which have been closed since the pandemic - with an outpatient department, and increase outpatient services to some 17,000 appointments a year.

There are also plans to create a ‘Lutterworth Health Campus’ on Gilmorton Road, to provide services like mental health, optometry, dentistry, GP practices and local authority services.

A consultation into the plans is set to close on January 14.

Wycliffe Medical Practice GP and senior partner Graham Johnson said: “The local community are doing a huge amount to help to get the message out about the public consultation and the turn-out has been great at our regular drop-in events. I’d like to thank everyone who has shown such an interest in our plans.

“What I’d really like to say at this stage, as we enter the second half of the consultation period, is that we’d like people from all age groups to complete either the online or hard copy survey telling us what they think of the proposals. This is all about getting health services right for the future, so it’s really important that we hear from people living in Lutterworth and surrounding areas including younger people who will grow up using those services, for themselves and for their future families.”

Locally some 2,700 homes are set to be built over the coming years, and the LLR board says creating services closer to home would save some 20,000 travel miles.

But campaigners from the Mary Guppy Group - made up of 80-year-old Mary Guppy, Bill Piper and David Fish – say the hospital needs more inpatient beds.

The group say findings from a survey of 17,000 residents carried out in 2020 show 95 per cent wanted beds in the hospital and residents think there is a huge distance from the town to central hospitals – with one cancelling an appointment after being quoted a £70 round-trip by taxi firms.

It says to improve facilities rehabilitation beds and an end-of-life unit should be created, and is calling for a meeting with senior commissioners.

David Fish said: “More beds are wanted and needed in Leicester and Leicestershire. The health plan needs a fit and proper costing of the option of a new build to include a new GP surgery accommodation, rehabilitation beds to be close to home and an end-of-life suite.

“The Mary Guppy Group appeals to our commissioners to meet with us and we ask every reader to answer the survey and ask for more services.”

Visit www.haveyoursaylutterworth.co.uk to fill out the survey.