Campaign group hits out at 'expensive' plans to refurbish Lutterworth’s Feilding Palmer Hospital

A campaign group has hit out at plans to refurbish Lutterworth’s Feilding Palmer Hospital, saying it will ‘unnecessarily’ cost millions.

Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland Integrated Care Board (LLR), which oversees the hospital, is currently holding a consultation into plans to remove inpatient beds and increase the number of outpatient appointments to around 17,000 annually.

But campaigners from the Mary Guppy Group - made up of 80-year-old Mary Guppy, Bill Piper and David Fish – say the hospital needs more inpatient beds.

The group say findings from a survey of 17,000 residents carried out in 2020 show 95 per cent wanted beds in the hospital.

They claim the board plans to spend £2.5million refurbishing the hospital – money the group says would be better spent on a new building.

A spokesman said: “Is it ok to spend £2.5million out of £5.8million capital unnecessarily? “Is it ok to refurb a 122-year-old building and expect it to last as long as a new-build community hospital?

“We have approached our NHS. Sometimes there are no replies to our emails. We are referred to the same managers who have already overruled our views, preferring their internal opinions rather than official NHS or consensus figures.

“The board consultation offers the difference between ‘no services’ which are currently available in the hospital, and the services that will be available in the rooms of the expensive refurbishment. Who isn’t going to vote for some services rather none?

“We volunteers have the time to look at ‘Save Lutterworth Hospital’ in detail. Our commissioners have been generous meeting us, but give us enormous broad detail and partial parts of the story, so we cannot engage sufficiency to explain our clear imaginative case.”

The board is looking to replace the current ten inpatient beds – which have been closed since the pandemic - with an outpatient department.

There are also plans to create a ‘Lutterworth Health Campus’ on Gilmorton Road, to provide services like mental health, optometry, dentistry, GP practices and local authority services.

Locally some 2,700 homes are set to be built over the coming years, and the LLR board says creating services closer to home would save some 20,000 travel miles.

A spokeswoman told the Mail: “The local NHS in Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland has been working closely with local groups and people for several years on plans to develop health services in Lutterworth. We have carefully considered all options presented to us during our extensive engagement, taking account of the current and future needs of the local population, together with achievability and value for money.

“Our proposals would see a significant increase in the number of outpatient and diagnostic appointments provided from the Feilding Palmer Hospital each year, from a current average of 4,000 to 17,000 a year. Plans involve removing the inpatient beds and repurposing and extending the hospital to provide the best outcomes for the people of Lutterworth.

“This public consultation gives people the opportunity to comment and share their views on our plans, to enable us to understand what the proposed changes would mean for people and to help us make a final decision.

Visit www.haveyoursaylutterworth.co.uk by January 14 to take part in the consultation.