Agenda item

A verbal update will be provided by the Integrated Care Board.

 

 

The Committee received a verbal update from the Integrated Care Board regarding the proposals to build a new Community Diagnostic Centre (CDC) and a Day Case Unit on the Hinckley and District Hospital (Mount Road) site.

 

The Committee welcomed to the meeting for this item Sarah Prema, Chief Strategy Officer, Integrated Care Board, and Adam Andrews, Deputy Director of Planned Care, Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland (LLR).

 

As part of the verbal update the following information was provided:

 

(i)           Government funding of approximately £14.5 million had been confirmed for the CDC. The CDC would provide the following diagnostic procedures:

·     CT scans;

·     MRI;

·     X-ray;

·     Ultrasound;

·     Cardio-respiratory;

·     Audiology;

·     Dermatology;

·     Phlebotomy;

·     Endoscopy.

 

(ii)         It was anticipated that the CDC would undertake approximately 89,000 activities a year.

 

(iii)        The building work for the CDC was expected to be complete by November 2024 and the first patients would arrive in December 2024.

 

(iv)       There had also been £7.35 million of funding allocated by NHS England in the national capital plan to replace the existing Day Case Unit at the Mount Road site. The new unit would provide the services that were currently on the site of Hinckley and District Hospital plus additional procedures. To secure the funding a business case would be submitted to NHS England by the end of July 2023 for approval, and value for money had to be demonstrated in the business case. The new Day Case Unit was expected to open sometime in 2025.

 

Arising from further discussions the following points were made:

 

(i)           Although the public consultation had finished there would be two further opportunities for the public to submit their views; in 6 months’ time and immediately before the CDC opened.

 

(ii)         In response to questions about when the building work on the site would start and what milestones were in place for the construction, it was agreed that a detailed timeline of the construction work would be provided to members after the meeting and the Board would be kept updated on how the construction work was progressing.

 

(iii)        In response to a request as to how many new staff would be needed for the CDC it was agreed that this information would be provided after the meeting. Reassurance was given that there was enough time to recruit new staff and staff were attracted to working in new buildings which boded well for the new Hinckley Community Diagnostic Centre. Liaison was taking place with other Integrated Care Boards and health providers across the region to ensure that there was adequate staff across the region and that recruitment in one place did not cause staffing issues elsewhere.

 

(iv)       In response to a question from a member about the employment packages being offered to staff to encourage them to work in Hinckley it was explained that the health and wellbeing of staff was being prioritised in order to help staff retention, and other incentives were being considered such as free parking and extra training and career development opportunities. The Committee offered to help publicise the new CDC and the employment opportunities that were available there.

 

(v)         The proposals for Hinckley were similar to those currently in operation in Loughborough but not exactly the same because different localities required different workforce models. It was agreed that further information would be provided after the meeting regarding the differences between the services at Hinckley and Loughborough.

 

(vi)       A member raised concerns about whether the proposals were ambitious enough going forward and whether they covered a far enough period into the future. In response reassurance was given that the new buildings were designed to be flexible so they could adapt to future developments. Medicine was always evolving, for example procedures which were required to be carried out in operating theatres in the past no longer required a theatre and procedures which previously had to be carried out under general anaesthetic could now be carried out under local anaesthetic.

 

(vii)      The bid for funding was dependent on it being demonstrated that the scheme would result in extra capacity in the system. Reassurance was given that the extra capacity at Hinckley would not result in less capacity elsewhere in LLR. There would be overall growth in capacity across LLR, though it would vary across the different sites.

 

RESOLVED:

 

(a)        That the contents of the verbal update be noted;

 

(b)        That officers be requested to provide a further update to a future meeting of the Board.

 

(Note: After the meeting the Integrated Care Board clarified that the Day Case Theatre at Hinckley would be able to undertake the same type of procedures as currently undertaken at Loughborough. The table below identifies the types of specialities currently undertaken at Loughborough and those planned for Hinckley.

 

Loughborough	Hinckley
General surgery	General surgery
Ophthalmology	Ophthalmology
Gynaecology	gynaecology
Podiatry surgery	Podiatry surgery
Orthopaedics	Orthopaedics
	plastics
	Vascular
	Urology

End of note.)