Just at this time when the NHS needs local beds to help with the crisis in A&E departments, what do we see, but local beds needed to relieve at least some of this pressure, being taken away. Discredit the NHS and drive people to private provision has long been the Tory aim and was indeed a main plank of UKIP leader (& Stoke Central candidate) Paul Nuttall’s policy portfolio!
The Staffordshire and Stoke on Trent NHS Sustainability and Transformation Plan (STP)
As expected the STP is all about the NHS saving money to cut its huge deficits at the expense of patients. The Plan is to close 167 hospital beds within two years.
Local NHS chief officers and Tory Council leaders have developed this plan in total secrecy over many months. Already all beds have been closed at Cheadle Hospital, without any public consultation; beds at Bradwell Hospital are due to close at the end of March this year. Yet we have no guarantees that sufficient community services will be in place to provide safe care to vulnerable people near to their own homes when hospital beds close. It is just a matter of time before the 44 beds at Leek Moorlands Hospital are closed. It is not clear yet what the site will be used for but savings would be maximised by using the site for housing. The Plan is also to close one of the three A&Es in Staffordshire. 
Staff at the Leek Moorlands Hospital have now been told that beds will be closed after September 2017. But the so called consultation on the STP Plan and the bed closures has been postponed until after the May County Council elections as NHS bosses and local Tory leaders know that the process will be highly controversial. The on line petition to save Leek Moorlands Hospital has already attracted over 16,000 UK signatures.
The closure of Leek Moorlands Hospital will be a great loss to this area. My husband and I have both been seen by consultants from the University Hospital and the Haywood Hospital. It is much easier for patients in the Staffordshire Moorlands to be seen in Leek than travel to Newcastle or Burslem and parking is easier and there are no parking fees .
Can I presume that the Walk in Centre and Emergency Centre will also close? What a shambles! The people who live in the Staffordshire Moorlands have very little facilities, Leek and Cheadle Hospitals were a great asset for patients coming out of The University Hospital and needing after care before returning home. In the area we live we have no Post Office, no shops and a very poor bus service and now the Local Council are taking the only thing we have left Leek Moorlands Hospital – you have already taken Cheadle Hospital beds and so where will all the sick patients leaving the University Hospital be placed? We have recently lost a nursing home in Cheadle and another one is struggling. I sincerely hope none of the Staffordshire Moorlands Councillors have an accident when their doctor’s surgery is closed and need URGENT medical attention which could be accessed at Leek Hospital, that would make them think. I urge everyone on the Council to think very strongly before you give the go ahead for another hospital in this to close!!
WHY DON’T YOU ASK THE PEOPLE IN THE VILLAGES IN THE STAFFORDSHIRE MOORLANDS TO HAVE THEIR SAY AS TO WHAT WOULD BE APPROPRIATE FOR PEOPLE IN THIS AREA. THEY WOULD SAY NOT CLOSING LEEK MOORLANDS HOSPITAL!!
Absolute disgrace My aunty was cared for there this country is a sham !!!!!!! Keep it open
My Father passed away at Leek Moorlands 2 years ago after a rare terminal illness. Leek Moorlands gave him regular blood transfusions which saved a journey to North Staffs saving unnecessary discomfort for my Father and added emotional stress for my Mother. He spent 6 weeks in North Staffs before returning to his beloved home town where he wanted to be. He felt at peace with himself. To close this hospital would be a great disadvantage to Leek and the surrounding area. North Staffs is a great hospital (And is now my local one moving away from Leek 20 years ago) BUT, they are over worked under paid and never have enough beds (through no fault of their own!!) What about the people who do not have transport to get to North Staffs, added pressure on the patient ambulance transport…No A&E, go and wait at North Staffs added pressure AGAIN!! The Government have not thought this through.
I am sure that every family in Leek has deep personal reasons for wanting to save Leek Moorlands Hospital. My husband recovered brilliantly from his stroke at Leek Hospital because of the great care he received. Then much later when he was dying they got him home to die as that was his wish.
I attended the meeting of the N Staffs Clinical Commissioning Group when they met in Leek this month to seek assurances about the future of our Hospital if they succeed in closing our much needed beds. Chief officer Marcus Warnes would not give any guarantees that we would keep our Minor Injuries Unit, X – ray facility, physiotherapy and other services. So much for our hospital being safe as some Conservatives have claimed!