South Leicestershire MP Alberto Costa has written to local NHS bosses to seek assurances over the future of the in-patient facilities at Feilding Palmer Hospital in Lutterworth, which were recently closed due to health and safety concerns over the Coronavirus pandemic.
Last week, the Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust announced the temporary closure of the in-patient facilities at the town’s hospital due to concerns over the lack of ward space to meet social distancing requirements.
Alberto spoke with Angela Hillery, the Partnership Trust’s Chief Executive, following the closure decision last week, however he has today written to the Trust to seek further clarity over the temporary closure and to ask for a timetable for its reopening to be published.
Alberto said, “I fully understand and appreciate the Trust’s decision to temporarily close the in-patient facilities at Feilding Palmer. Of course, at a time of national crisis, the health and safety of patients must come first, however I would like to be assured that the Trust will seek to re-open this part of the hospital as soon it is safe to do. Understandably, many local people and patients recognise the huge importance of local services such as those at Feilding Palmer, and they do not wish to see them close without a like-for-like replacement or indeed any proper consultation as to their future”.
Alberto added, “To avoid any doubt over the hospital’s future, I have today written to the Chief Executive of the Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust in order to ask for their assurances that the hospital’s in-patient facilities will reopen in due course, and to ask that they formally publish a timetable so that my constituents and other patients are kept fully informed as to this process. I have always been clear that I would not accept any detrimental changes to important local services in South Leicestershire, and I would like to have assurances from the Trust that this will not be the case at Feilding Palmer Hospital”.
Alberto is pictured above speaking in the House of Commons.
