Agenda item

Members are asked to consider a petition received under the Council’s Petitions Scheme and are recommended to forward the petition to the responsible body.

A member of the public presented a petition in relation to Hinckley Hospital. Whilst acknowledging that the action requested by the petition was not within the remit of the authority, members were pleased that the petition had been brought to Council due to the strength of public feeling. Councillor Wright, seconded by Councillor Hall, proposed that the petition be forwarded by the Chief Executive to the West Leicestershire CCG with a copy to the NHS Asset Management Team, as the relevant bodies, with the following representation from the Council:

“Hinckley and Bosworth Borough Council acknowledges and supports residents’ wishes for retention and indeed expansion of health services within the borough and more specifically within the Hinckley area. This is a growing borough and we don’t just need services for now but we need to know that our health services are fit and able to cope with the influx of new residents that will come to our borough over the next 10 plus years.

The Council acknowledges and supports the residents view that ideally the Mount Road Cottage Hospital building should be made fit for purpose and be able to offer us all modern, convenient, state of the art and nationally accredited health care services that will take the borough into the future so it will not just be able to treat us, but treat our children and our children’s children.

In acknowledging and supporting the residents’ desire however, the Council acknowledges its understanding, as indicated by the West Leicestershire CCG, that renovation and reconfiguration of the Cottage Hospital building may well not be cost effective; that it may cost millions and that the stretched public NHS purse may be spent more cost effectively by transferring and possibly enhancing those services currently housed within the Cottage Hospital building into a reconfigured Health Centre behind the Cottage Hospital and into the Sunnyside Hospital on Ashby Road which is currently under-utilised.

The Council accepts that the Cottage Hospital building in its present condition is unable to facilitate cancer screening and it cannot get national accreditation for endoscopy as most facilities have now days; further, its layout simply is not conducive to modern medicine and infection prevention.

The Council advocates the development and provision of additional local health services such as a further emergency care offering, accommodation for health-related voluntary bodies and (if renovation/reconfiguration of the Cottage hospital building is not economically viable) significant investment into the Health Centre and Sunnyside Hospital buildings as well as health services generally in the borough, including needed renovation, reconfiguration and expansion of some of those buildings.

Again, if Mount Road Cottage Hospital is simply not economically viable, the Council would strongly advocate building an extension to the Sunnyside Hospital site to allow for possible housing of some of the transferred services from the Cottage Hospital, to allow provision and room for additional/enhanced services and to provide capacity for the significant growth our area will undergo over the next 10 years. (this was previously planned back in the 2008 Community Health Services Consultation)

The Sunnyside site does provide vast scope for expansion of building with ample parking. Transportation to and from the Sunnyside site should be carefully considered as well as pedestrian safety at the Sunnyside site.”

During discussion on the above proposal, reference was made to:

·         The financial pressures facing the NHS

·         The informative presentation received by the Scrutiny Commission in relation to the current healthcare consultation

·         The importance of not putting at risk future investment in local health services by protecting a building that may not be fit for purpose.

Councillor Witherford requested that a comment be added to the representation that, should the CCG decide to keep the current Mount Road building, the space would be best used to reconfigure areas such as consultation and waiting rooms to support current GP services. Councillor Wright agreed to include this in the representation.

It was unanimously

RESOLVED – the petition be sent on to the West Leicestershire CCG and the NHS Asset Management Team with the following representation from the Council:

“Hinckley and Bosworth Borough Council acknowledges and supports residents’ wishes for retention and indeed expansion of health services within the borough and more specifically within the Hinckley area. This is a growing borough and we don’t just need services for now but we need to know that our health services are fit and able to cope with the influx of new residents that will come to our borough over the next 10 plus years.

The Council acknowledges and supports the residents view that ideally the Mount Road Cottage Hospital building should be made fit for purpose and be able to offer us all modern, convenient, state of the art and nationally accredited health care services that will take the borough into the future so it will not just be able to treat us, but treat our children and our children’s children.

In acknowledging and supporting the residents’ desire however, the Council acknowledges its understanding, as indicated by the West Leicestershire CCG, that renovation and reconfiguration of the Cottage Hospital building may well not be cost effective; that it may cost millions and that the stretched public NHS purse may be spent more cost effectively by transferring and possibly enhancing those services currently housed within the Cottage Hospital building into a reconfigured Health Centre behind the Cottage Hospital and into the Sunnyside Hospital on Ashby Road which is currently under-utilised.

The Council accepts that the Cottage Hospital building in its present condition is unable to facilitate cancer screening and it cannot get national accreditation for endoscopy as most facilities have now days; further, its layout simply is not conducive to modern medicine and infection prevention.

The Council advocates the development and provision of additional local health services such as a further emergency care offering, accommodation for health-related voluntary bodies and (if renovation/reconfiguration of the Cottage hospital building is not economically viable) significant investment into the Health Centre and Sunnyside Hospital buildings as well as health services generally in the borough, including needed renovation, reconfiguration and expansion of some of those buildings.

Again, if Mount Road Cottage Hospital is simply not economically viable, the Council would strongly advocate building an extension to the Sunnyside Hospital site to allow for possible housing of some of the transferred services from the Cottage Hospital, to allow provision and room for additional/enhanced services and to provide capacity for the significant growth our area will undergo over the next 10 years. (this was previously planned back in the 2008 Community Health Services Consultation)

The Sunnyside site does provide vast scope for expansion of building with ample parking. Transportation to and from the Sunnyside site should be carefully considered as well as pedestrian safety at the Sunnyside site.”