By Anna Whittaker, Local Democracy Reporter
A public consultation into major plans to redevelop Nottingham University Hospitals aims to gather the views of 10,000 people.
The ‘Tomorrow’s NUH’ programme has been described as a ‘once in a generation’ opportunity to redevelop hospital services to address health inequalities and spark economic regeneration.
Nottingham University Hospitals Trust, which runs Queen’s Medical Centre and City Hospital, was chosen as one of 40 major hospitals to be funded by the Government to make the changes.
But the Government announced a delay to the plans in May, meaning the work will not be complete by the end of 2030.
Now, the Integrated Care Board (ICB), which runs local healthcare services, is planning to hold a 12 week public consultation on the plans next year.
It said previously that the public consultation should conclude before the start of the pre-election period for the mayoral election in late March 2024 – but a final date has not yet been set.
Nottinghamshire County Council’s health scrutiny committee will discuss the plans for public consultation at its meeting on December 12.
ICB leaders including Lucy Dadge, Director of Integration, Mark Wightman,
Director of Strategy and Reconfiguration and Alex Ball, Director of Communications and Engagement, will answer questions from councillors at the meeting.
NHS documents state: “The aim of the consultation exercise is to deliver best practice activity over a minimum twelve week period that ensures robust engagement, reflecting the diverse communities involved in the consultation, especially our underserved communities.
“The target number of responses for the consultation, in total, is 10,000.”
The ICB says it will use a range of methods to engage with residents and organisations including public meetings, specific interest sessions, targeted engagement/focus groups and online and hard copy surveys.
It added there will be translations into Arabic, Czech, Farsi, Kurdish, Polish, Punjabi, Romanian, Tigrinya and Urdu.
The ICB board is also set to discuss the progression to public consultation at its meeting on January 11.
The plans could see maternity and neonatal services being merged at Queen’s Medical Centre in a new Women’s and Children’s hospital.
Most planned operations, such as hip replacements, would be delivered at the City Hospital, with some emergency care moving to the QMC. Cancer treatment would continue to be delivered across both sites.
The vision is to turn City Hospital into a “centre of excellence for elective care”.
