This morning our local health authority, the Bedfordshire, Luton and Milton Keynes Integrated Care Board (ICB) put out the following statement on expanding health services in Leighton Buzzard.
Responding to the statement, South West Bedfordshire MP, Andrew Selous, said
“I am pleased to see formal confirmation today from the ICB that they are progressing with the outline business case to secure additional healthcare provision in the town which is long overdue and urgently needed.
This expansion is happening because we have now worked out a way to release value from the 4 acres of land which the NHS owns in the town, which has lain dormant for 35 years.
I very much welcome the ICB’s commitment to work closely with the three patient participation groups and that important work needs to begin immediately because local people have not been listened to in the past. It is right that the ICB decides which additional services are provided in the town on the basis of the feedback from the patient participation group survey which has just been completed.
It is also good to see the commitment to publishing six weekly updates on the progress which has been made on the business case for the new facilities in the town. We may not be offered everything we want straight away and the initial provision will almost certainly not be the limit of our ambitions, but we must move forward at speed to provide additional services as quickly as possible as they are desperately needed. It will be important to future proof what is provided so that services can then be expanded over time.