A panel of Rutland councillors will scrutinise the winter care plans put together by the area's health board, following watchdog criticism in previous years.

All integrated care boards have been told by the department of health to get together a plan for how they will manage the winter season when hospital admissions increase. 

A request has been put to Rutland County Council's scrutiny committee to look at the plan and at the meeting held this week, the committee decided they wanted to go further than had been requested.

Labour's Cllr Ramsay Ross said more should be done following critical reports by the Care Quality Commission about urgent care at Leicester Royal Infirmary, and the announcement earlier this month that the maternity unit would be one of 14 trusts looked at in a special review.

He said: "We should ask for a comparison between what has been proposed over the previous two years, given that the CQC in its audits has thrown up issues around emergency care in the hospital on two occasions now. If we are simply to look at the [winter plan] report as presented, I do not think there is a great deal of value to be added.

"I think it is important that not only has the CQC reported critically, we now have the government referral for the maternity part of the July CQC audit.

"My suggestion is, if it [the winter plan] is to be considered, we ask for the plans to be put in the context of what has gone before."

Chairperson of the committee, Cllr Lucy Stephenson (Cons) , said that Cllr Ross' suggestion was 'spot on the money'.

The winter plan was presented to Rutland's Health and Wellbeing Board earlier this month. It said: "The Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland ("LLR") Integrated Care System anticipates significant pressures on urgent and emergency care ("UEC") services during the 2025/26 winter period. Our collective winter plan outlines our collective response to this expected period of surge."

The health structures across the country are currently undergoing huge transformation. The Leicester and Rutland integrated Care Boards have merged with neighbouring Northamptonshire and hundreds of jobs are expected to be shed. The hospitals in Northamptonshire and Leicester, which are all rated as requiring improvement, are all led by the same group chief executive, Richard Mitchell.