Update on health services in Hinckley.
The Alliance, which provides planned care services in Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland has been working with West Leicestershire Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) to quickly assess how the x-ray equipment at Hinckley and District Hospital could be reinstated, after making the very difficult decision in September to close it.
A number of options were looked at and we are really pleased to confirm that the University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust has confirmed that they can fund a new x-ray machine and the necessary interior building work to install it through their 2019/20 capital programme. This solution has also approved through the CCG Board and other partners.
It has been really important to us that we, sooner rather than later, provide an x-ray service to the people of Hinckley and its surrounding areas, rather than increasing the inconvenience of asking patients to go into the city, or to other locations for their diagnostic procedure.
This positive news means we can now develop the timetable for carrying out the necessary internal building work and installing the x-ray equipment. We will be able to share this timetable with local people shortly informing them of when they will be able to access their local x-ray facilities again.
We are also still committed to the wider proposals for our long term plan for Hinckley, which is subject to public consultation. We are going through the approvals process with NHS England/Improvement. As soon as approval is given we will fulfil our commitment to consult with people.
Further information on both the short term and long term will be communicated as soon as we can.
LLR CCGs Lead for Communications and Engagement
Commenting on the update, Dr. Luke Evans said "I am really pleased that the West Leicestershire CCG is prioritising investment into health services in Hinckley & Bosworth, I especially welcome the work being done to facilitate a new X-Ray department in Hinckley and would like to congratulate everyone involved in moving this forwards".