By Olivia Mumby
Leicester campaign group, Save Our NHS Leicestershire, is encouraging as many people as possible to attend upcoming ‘engagement event’ meetings in an effort to prevent planned closures at Leicester General Hospital.
Campaigners are hoping that a high public turnout will help towards preventing the removal of intensive care beds from Leicester General Hospital.
They believe that if the removal of these beds goes ahead, it will be the first step in downgrading the general hospital as an acute hospital.
In a statement posted online, the campaign group said: “Local NHS leaders want to close the Leicester General Hospital as an acute hospital. This is one of the reasons they are removing intensive care.
“Instead of consulting the public, local NHS bosses will be holding token engagement events, which we plan to attend and raise our objections to their actions.
“Can you make one of them too?”
The campaigners hope that if enough people attend the upcoming meetings they will be granted a full public consultation on the plans.
However, NHS bosses have denied that the removal of the beds will lead to the closure of the general as an acute hospital.
Leicester South MP and Labour’s shadow health secretary, Jon Ashworth, said: “The proposal to move the intensive care beds from the General to the Royal may well subsequently be the clinically correct thing to do.
“It may well mean, when we begin to interrogate and gather the evidence, that we can see a medical argument for
Addressing the public concerns, Mr Ashworth continued: “Until we see that medical argument and that clinical evidence, people will fear that it is a trojan horse for the closure of Leicester General Hospital.”
Details including dates and times of upcoming engagement events can be found on the Save Our NHS Leicestershire FaceBook page.
