Agenda item

The Committee considered a report of Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland Integrated Care Board (ICB) which informed of a consultation on the plans to make changes to the usage of Feilding Palmer Hospital in Lutterworth to maximise access to health services for the local community. A copy of the report, marked ‘Agenda Item 9’, is filed with these minutes.

The Committee welcomed to the meeting for this item Sarah Prema, Chief Strategy Officer, Integrated Care Board and David Williams, Group Director of Strategy & Partnerships, Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust.

Arising from discussions the following points were noted:

(i)           It was not proposed to demolish the Feilding Palmer Hospital building. Instead, the interior would be refurbished with the space remodelled and an extension would be built. In response to a question from a member as to the precise timescale for the implementation of the proposals it was explained that the first building works would likely start in spring 2025 but a full timetable would be provided to members after the meeting.

(ii)         The £5.8m capital for the proposals was coming from the local budget which meant that the ICB would not have to go through time-consuming national processes. The funding had already been confirmed and was available for use.

(iii)        Prior to the Covid-19 pandemic there had been 10 inpatient beds at Feilding Palmer Hospital.  One of the beds was in a suite and was used for palliative care.  All these beds were closed during the pandemic as they did not meet the Infection, Prevention Control Inpatient standards and they remained closed for that reason. A member raised concerns that the new proposals for Feilding Palmer Hospital did not include inpatient beds and stated it was important for beds to be available locally to enable friends and relatives to visit patients easily. In response it was explained that the approach of modern healthcare was to treat patients in their own home as much as possible so that they could be kept mobile and did not suffer as much muscle degeneration as they would in a hospital bed. Virtual wards were being used to monitor patients at home.

(iv)       Replacing the inpatient beds would be 6 consultation rooms and an enhanced procedure suite for day-case procedures carried out without general anaesthetic.

(v)         The proposed plans for more community procedures and outpatient clinics at FPCH had been developed based on current evidence of need for the local population. The information on need had been collected from local engagements and consultations. The NHS also held data on which services residents from Lutterworth post codes most commonly accessed and used this to inform future planning.

(vi)       In response to a concern raised about Feilding Palmer Hospital being able to cope with the large housing growth projected for the Lutterworth area and the amount of elderly people, it was explained that it was predicted that the housing growth would actually increase the amount of younger people living in the area. Therefore outpatient clinics were likely to be the most appropriate type of provision.

(vii)      In response to a question as to what impact the new proposals would have on waiting times it was explained that the proposals were not specifically designed to tackle waiting times but there were many other initiatives being put in place in Leicestershire which would deal with that problem.

RESOLVED:

(a)        That the proposed consultation on the plans to make changes to the usage of Feilding Palmer Hospital in Lutterworth to maximise access to health services for the local community be noted;

(b)        That officers be requested to take on board the comments now made by the Committee as part of the consultation process.