Leicestershire County and Rutland Primary Care Trust (PCT) was established on 1 October 2006, replacing the former Charnwood and North West Leicestershire, Hinckley and Bosworth, Melton, Rutland and Harborough and South Leicestershire PCTs. Known as NHS Leicestershire County and Rutland it is split into two organisations, the Community Health Services side which actually provides services for patients, and the commissioning side which buys, or 'commissions' those services on behalf of patients. The PCT is responsible for delivering services at the new Melton Hospital and held a public consultation in LATE 2008 to decide on the programme for the next 10 years. It is a fact that at present the new Melton Hospital is under used and that there needs to be more local services made available there to make it financially viable.
The PCT consultation was limited to a number of specific areas of community health aimed at patients with particularly special and recurrent needs. There is however considerable evidence that the vaste majority of Latham House patients want to see more surgery, more specialist appointemnts and more support facilities provided at the Melton Hospital. People want to spend less time travelling to Leicester and other areas of the County for appointments and treatment. The elderly, infirmed and those feeling poorly find it very stressful spending so much time travelling for a relatively short appointment and want the Melton Hospital to truely be a hub for local delivery of services.
I have participated in the consultation and as Chairman of the Patient Participation Group (PPG) at Latham House Medical Practice have been representing the views of patients as expressed in a survey undertaken by the PPG in June 2008. This made clear that Latham House patients want an increase in services available at the Melton Hospital, not a transfer to it of services already provided by Latham House. The PPG has been representing these views to PCT officers and also the consultant who prepared a report for the PCT early in 2009. The PCT says it wants to provide quality community health care and PPG seeks to see this reflected in a considerable imcrease in the delivery of health care services at the Melton Hospital.