We, the local NHS, have been awarded £450 million by the Government to make some improvements to the hospitals in Leicester and the services you would receive there. We are asking people of all ages to fill in a questionnaire to let us know what you think of the proposals.
If you are a young person who is less likely to use hospital services at the moment, you might think that your views aren't important. The proposals are about improving our hospitals for the future - your future. It is therefore just as important, if not more so, for you to fill in the questionnaire because it is you and your future family that will benefit most from any improvements we make.
We are proposing to make some significant changes:
New children's hospital
The proposal would create a children’s hospital in the current Kensington building at Leicester Royal Infirmary, bringing together services that are currently spread around the hospital sites. This would make it the first dedicated single-site children’s hospital in the East Midlands.
Hospital can be a daunting place for children as they are away from their friends and family in an environment they are not used to. The creation of a new standalone hospital for children and young people would focus on creating a more comfortable environment, a place to play and where they can feel at home. Parents would be able to feel more relaxed knowing that the new hospital environment has been designed for children, giving them a much better experience and easing some of their worries.
New maternity hospital and improvements to maternity care
Our proposals include creating a new dedicated maternity hospital providing a safe and sustainable environment for maternity and neonatal services with more personalised care provided by a named midwife, alongside a dedicated children’s hospital.
This will allow obstetric-led births (specialist care of women during pregnancy, labour and after birth) and a co-located midwife-led unit to be with neonatal services (care for premature or ill babies) all in the same building. This means that women could choose a less ‘medical’ delivery, but be close to the staff and equipment that can support them if circumstances make this necessary. It also means that skilled staff and expensive equipment are in one place resulting in a less fragile service when demand is high.
In addition, the facilities will support partners staying overnight and provide a 14-bed facility to help prevent mums being separated from their babies and avoid long term admissions. There would be better use of staff resources to support continuity and one-to-one care. There would be access to neonatal unit facilities for babies that require it, reducing risks associated with transferring premature babies, improving outcomes for premature infants.
Reviews of maternity services identified that the standalone birthing centre at St Mary’s Hospital in Melton Mowbray is not accessible for the majority of women in Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland. It is also under-used with just one birth taking place every three days. Our proposal would see the relocation of the midwifery-led unit at St Mary’s Hospital to Leicester General Hospital. You can read more about our maternity proposals here.
Treatment centre
The treatment centre is an important part of our plans and enables the separation of planned care (non-emergency) from emergency care. At the moment, our emergency care services and planned care services sit side-by-side. This means that at times of pressure, patients waiting for planned surgery often have their operations cancelled because an emergency patient needs the bed, is in theatre or intensive care is full. Locating the treatment centre at Glenfield Hospital away from emergency care predominantly provided at Leicester Royal Infirmary, would help to protect planned care procedures.
We know that Leicester Royal Infirmary tends to be ‘full’ with traffic and parking a significant issue for patients, visitors and staff. Moving the majority of planned care from Leicester Royal Infirmary – which currently sees more than 100,000 patients for day-case procedures and approximately 600,000 for follow-up appointments a year – frees up capacity at Leicester Royal Infirmary to manage emergency demand. This creates space for a dedicated children’s hospital and new maternity hospital and reduces congestion and parking problems.
The proposals also include:
- Moving all acute care to the Leicester Royal Infirmary and Glenfield Hospital
- Two ‘super’ intensive care units with 100 beds in total, almost double the current number.
- Modernised wards, operating theatres and imaging facilities.
- Additional car parking.
- We propose to keep some non-acute services on the site of Leicester General Hospital, in Evington (three miles east of Leicester city centre on Gwendolen Road). The services that we propose to have at Leicester General include:
- A diabetes centre of excellence.
- Imaging facilities including scans and x-rays to help diagnose patients’ conditions.
- Stroke recovery services with inpatient beds (in the Evington Centre).
- Potential development of a primary care urgent treatment centre, observation facilities, community outpatient facilities for a range of mental and physical conditions and additional primary care services.
You can read more detail about each aspect of the proposals on this website.
Please tell us what you think of the proposals by filling in the questionnaire by 21st December 2020.
