Anger at £120k cost of Outline Business Case for healthcare that offers 'little hope' for Leighton Buzzard

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The Bedfordshire Luton and Milton Keynes Integrated Care Board (BLMK ICB) has faced yet more criticism as it has emerged that their recent Outline Business Case (OBC) plans for Leighton Buzzard cost over £120,000 of public money.

Its recent proposals for new clinical rooms in the town were met with dismay by some councillors and campaigners, including the ‘Leighton-Linslade Health Matters!’ group, who are calling for a fourth GP surgery, as well as a health hub – which would be larger and provide more services than the proposed clinical rooms.

But more upset has been caused as the price of the research has been announced – with the town's Lib Dem group accusing it of being a "wordy document" that cost "over £123,000 in expensive consultancy fees".

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However, the BLMK ICB says the expense reflects "the expert technical and financial advice" necessary to produce an Outline Business Case.

Options for clinical rooms as detailed in the Outline Business Case for Leighton Buzzard. Top image: option 1. Bottom image: option 2a.  Documents and images supplied by the BLMK ICB.Options for clinical rooms as detailed in the Outline Business Case for Leighton Buzzard. Top image: option 1. Bottom image: option 2a.  Documents and images supplied by the BLMK ICB.
Options for clinical rooms as detailed in the Outline Business Case for Leighton Buzzard. Top image: option 1. Bottom image: option 2a. Documents and images supplied by the BLMK ICB.

Central Bedfordshire councillor Shaun Roberts, Leighton Linslade South, claimed: “Local residents will be shocked to see the huge cost to the public purse of this report, which is nothing more than a worthless piece of paper as it delivers little hope of the improved health services we urgently need.

“Town residents have waited months and months to be told that the long-promised health hub and new GP surgery are not financially viable. The ICB hasn’t offered up a penny of its vast resources to fund new healthcare in the town, yet taxpayers are forced to stump up for the costs of this expensive consultancy exercise.”

The costs were disclosed after a request at the recent Central Bedfordshire Council Health and Scrutiny Committee.

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In a statement, the 'Leighton-Linslade Health Matters!' campaign, claimed: "In the past five years the BLMK ICB and CBC have spent over £1m on multiple health plans for our town; with each publication the budgets, scope of services, and location options become smaller and smaller whilst the delays grow longer.

"We have had the opportunity to speak to the ICB directly and expressed our concern that we are not seeing any kind of 'Future Road Map' – just an immediate short term budget constraints thinking, which appears to have no consideration of the how the Darzi Report Objectives will start to change the focus of investment to a more Primary Care first approach?

"The LLHM campaign considers that the only viable OBC options that will be suitable for our town may need to be scalable - or have a phased development due to initial budget constraints.

"But they must accommodate future population growth plans - so [any new plan] has to be located on a new site that can be expanded and guarantees enough parking and safe patient access. This is not what the existing clinic offers."

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A spokesman for the BLMK ICB, said: “After the former MP for South West Bedfordshire secured an agreement from the Department of Health and Social Care that land on Vandyke Road could be released for sale, we commissioned an external agency to determine whether this would make the potential development of a new health facility in Leighton Buzzard affordable.

“The cost reflects the expert technical and financial advice necessary to produce an Outline Business Case to the standard required by the Treasury, including architectural services, town planning, engineering advice and cost planning.”

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