Harborough councillor urges NHS bosses to bring more services to St Luke's as the town continues to grow

Cllr Knowles says further upgrades to the town hospital are needed.

Health campaigner and councillor, Phil Knowles, is set to meet with NHS bosses to discuss the urgent next steps for ongoing improvements to St Luke’s Hospital.

Cllr Knowles was at the front of an almost 30-year campaign to bring the £7.5million site development, along with increased clinics, to the town some five years ago.

But now Harborough’s Liberal Democrat leader says the next steps are urgently in need of exploration.

He said: ''The date, time and venue are agreed and in the diary.

“We took almost 30 years to win the upgrade and new build at St Luke’s and it has already delivered many, many positives to our community.

“Now we need to push this on to the next stages. We need to look to deliver increased services on the site, increased services that will benefit the community, cut down on travel times, stress levels and costs.

“We need to see St Luke’s site fulfil its considerable potential in the wider service structure supporting the main hospital hubs.”

Among the topics up for discussion are out of hours support, walk-in facilities and clinic expansion to accommodate a ‘growing Harborough’.

It comes after concerns had been voiced of residents travelling to Corby for advice and treatment.

He added: “St Luke’s had been a long-term campaign for me and I am very keen to take every opportunity to champion its use, improvement and advancement for the community.“I'm very grateful to the NHS bosses for agreeing to meet, and this may well be the first of a number of meetings, that will be better assessed after the first meeting of 2023.”

Among his more recent campaign successes is the introduction of the cytosponge procedure - considered less invasive than endoscopies which involves a camera passed through the mouth down a long tube to check for gastro-intestinal problems. The new procedure uses a ‘sponge’ on a piece of fine string which dissolves in the stomach and collects cells when pulled back up.

The move meant hundreds of patients needing the procedure could now be seen at their local town hospital.