This afternoon I hosted an emergency summit about securing a new healthcare proposal for the Hinckley & District Hospital (HDH) site.
This follows the disappointing news last month that the £10m Hinckley Day Case Unit had been cancelled.
As many of you will know, there is £2.7m allocated to enable development of the site into the best possible healthcare facility for people and patients in Hinckley and the surrounding areas.
It was a positive meeting, and I was pleased to see everyone keen to work together to secure the best possible proposal for our area.
Attendees included:
- Chief Executive, University Hospitals Leicester
- Chief Strategy Officer and Head of Strategy for local NHS Integrated Care Board
- Chief Finance Officer, Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust
- Chief Executive and Leader of Hinckley & Bosworth Borough Council
- Director of Public Health, Leicestershire County Council
- Representatives from Hinckley & Bosworth Medical Alliance
Encouragingly, the NHS have planned a series of meetings to work through the options in the coming weeks.
I know some people may have questions about the site, I hope these excerpts from the NHS papers help to explain:
Why can't the Cottage Hospital (HDH) be used?
"Due to the design and specification of the building, it was no longer fit to provide modern healthcare services. There was also privacy and dignity issues with shared changing room facilities, resulting in same sex clinics being delivered at any one time.
"The HDH is no longer in use and stands derelict."
What is the situation with the money?
"The £2.7m of System Capital funds allocated to the scheme continues to be ring-fenced and is included in next years approved system capital plan. The funds will be used to enable development of the site.
"The next steps will be to develop a case for change for Hinckley Community Services in line with the NHS 10-year plan and the recently published neighbourhood health guidelines. A proposal will be ready by the end of quarter 2 in 2026/27."
As always, I'll keep you updated with new information as it comes to light!
