Extra beds added to Hinckley and Bosworth Community Hospital

Some of the extra beds will be used for patients who have completed their treatment in hospitals but who need additional care to get them home or to a care home.

Five additional beds have opened at Hinckley and Bosworth Community Hospital. 

These beds have increased the capacity at Hinckley’s East ward from 23 to 28 beds.

The capacity of Hinckley’s North ward remains at 18 beds.

Nikki Beacher, LPT’s deputy director for community health services, said: “This is great news for patients across Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland.

“The extra capacity we have will be used particularly for patients who have completed their treatment in acute hospitals, but who require additional care to get them home or to a care home. It will also be used to prevent some patients from ever having to enter an acute hospital.

“We will offer patients nursing, physiotherapy and occupational therapy care to help them continue their recovery.

“At the same time, we will free capacity within acute hospitals, allowing them to care for more patients who are very, very poorly.”

The expansion in bed capacity has taken place as the Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland Integrated Care Board pledged £9m for this year and next year to increase the number of community hospital beds by 52 across the eight community hospitals.

Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust (LPT), which runs the hospitals, is planning to take on an additional 227 staff which includes nurses, physiotherapists, occupational therapists and support staff to provide care to the additional patients across the hospitals.