The conference 'A Health Plan for Rutland', held at the Rutland County Museum on Wednesday, 4 September has been called a huge success.

Sir Laurence Howard chaired the discussion with about 100 Rutland residents focused on the requirements of future health services for Rutland.

Jennifer Fenelon Chair of the Rutland Health & Social Care Policy Consortium, who hosted the event, said: "Local People asked us to facilitate this event because people have felt very left out of real engagement in the planning of services and have said so but continue to feel 'talked at' and not 'listened to'."

"They know that, despite it being a small county, planning for Rutland is complex."

People expressed their frustration at not having received a hearing in the past and hoped that their local knowledge reflected at the meeting and in a forthcoming report will now be recognised and applied to plans.

There was broad support for many of the proposals in the NHS Long Term Plan announced in January this year if it is delivered in Rutland.

Care closer to home, easier access to mental health services, more joined up services and better use of Rutland Memorial Hospital was the main focus of the discussion.

There was a strong sense of what is required to deliver a 21st century health service to the Rutland community and in the coming weeks all the proposals will be distilled into a report - 'A Health Plan For Rutland' - and delivered to The Better Care Together Partnership.

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This is the group of local health organisations which is tasked with improving delivery of healthcare locally, and is due to prepare a draft plan for Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland by the end of September.