Building Better Hospitals online consultation events get underway

People can get involved in a series of online events to find out more about proposals to spend £450 million transforming acute hospital and maternity services in Leicestershire.

The events have been arranged as part of the Building Better Hospitals for the Future public consultation, which launched at the end of September and runs until 21 December 2020.

The consultation concerns the services delivered at the three main hospitals in Leicester, run by University Hospitals of Leicester (UHL) NHS Trust, as well as services delivered at the midwifery-led unit at St Mary’s Hospital, Melton Mowbray.

The events will take place online, due to the restrictions imposed by the Covid-19 pandemic. To ensure people who aren’t online are still able to participate, there is an option to listen in by telephone and submit any questions in advance.

The question and answer panel sessions will be able to host 1,000-plus attendees, with people able to ask questions during the event via the question and answer box, or submit them up to two hours in advance.

The sessions are due to take place on October 12 (7-8.30pm), October 29 (10-11.30am) and December 7 (7-8.30pm).

The public events will host up to 250 people. People will be able to ask questions in exactly the same way as they would have done in a face-to-face public meeting. The public events are due to take place on October 14 (2-3.30pm), October 15 (7-8.30pm), October 31 (10-11.30am), November 12 (7-8.30pm), November 21 (2-3.30pm), November 27 (10-11.30am), December 2 (7-8.30pm), December 12 (2-3.30pm) and December 13 (2-3.30pm).

In addition to these events, a number of workshops on specific topics within the consultation are being held so people can get into a discussion with others and give more detailed insights and views. These will be limited to a pre-registered audience of up to 15 people. People will have the choice of joining a workshop covering one of three topics on each date.

The workshops will take place on:

October 26 (6-7.30pm), with topics covering a general discussion, Leicester Royal Infirmary, and Leicester General
November 9 (11am-12.30pm) with topics covering a general discussion, carers, and maternity
November 18 (6-7.30pm) with topics covering maternity, Glenfield Hospital, and Leicester General
November 19 (6-7.30pm) with topics covering a general discussion, Leicester Royal Infirmary, and the children’s hospital
November 23 (6-7.30pm) with topics covering a general discussion, Glenfield Hospital, and Leicester Royal Infirmary.
Details of how to join the online events will be available on the consultation website:

www.betterhospitalsleicester.nhs.uk. All the insights and feedback from the events will be captured and incorporated into the consultation to be analysed and evaluated.

Andy Williams, Chief Executive for the Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland clinical commissioning groups, said: “These online events are a great way of helping more people to find out about the proposals and ask questions of leading clinicians and managers, than would have been possible at face-to-face meetings before the pandemic.  

“We are spreading the message far and wide through the consultation documents, flyers, posters, media publicity, website, videos, social media and online meetings. In addition, voluntary and community sector representatives are supporting these efforts by using their extensive networks to further engage with local communities. We want as many people as possible to be engaged in this consultation and to have their say by completing the consultation questionnaire.”

The Building Better Hospitals for the Future proposals are set to deliver a number of significant changes.

The proposals would provide 139 more hospital beds and change acute and maternity services by moving all acute care to the Leicester Royal Infirmary and to Glenfield Hospital. Acute care includes patients receiving treatment for severe injury or illness, urgent medical conditions, or during recovery from surgery.

Among the new developments, the investment would see the creation of a major planned care treatment centre at the Glenfield Hospital. This would separate planned operations and emergency procedures.

The proposals would see the creation of the first dedicated single-site children’s hospital in the East Midlands, based in the Kensington Building. It would also see a new maternity hospital developed on the site.

Meanwhile, two ‘super’ intensive care units with 100 beds in total would be developed at the Leicester Royal Infirmary and Glenfield Hospital. The investment would also see the creation of a welcome centre to help people find their way around the hospital sites, modernised wards, operating theatres and imaging facilities, and additional car parking.

It is proposed that a new ‘community health campus’ with non-acute services would be created on the site of Leicester General Hospital, in Evington. The proposals include in-patient beds for patients recovering from a stroke, new GP direct access imaging facilities such as x-rays and scans to help diagnose patients’ conditions quicker, and the retention of the existing diabetes centre of excellence.

The proposals may also see a new primary care urgent treatment centre, observation facilities, community outpatient facilities for a range of mental and physical conditions, and additional primary care services.

In addition, the proposals include potentially relocating the midwifery-led unit at St Mary’s Hospital, Melton Mowbray to the Leicester General Hospital campus.

The consultation will also consider greater use of hydrotherapy pools in the community, replacing use of the hydrotherapy pool at Leicester General Hospital.

The consultation is being run by the three NHS clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) in Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland – Leicester City CCG, West Leicestershire CCG, and East Leicestershire and Rutland CCG.