The future of Grantham Hospital is a discussion that has been spoken in the front rooms and backyards of our town and nearby villages for years. Grantham is growing, we all know this. Our council have ambitious house building plans for the town and our great schools and strong transport links make it an attractive place for people to move to for a better quality of life. And yet, the services to be offered at our hospital remain unclear.
England is divided into NHS Foundation Trusts which are empowered by the government to make independent decisions on critical services at a local level. The idea being that NHS leaders and staff on-the-ground in a community and across a county are best placed to determine a tailored model for local healthcare service provision. In Grantham, these decisions are made by the United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust (ULHT).
This week ULHT made the decision to “temporarily” change services at Grantham Hospital in response to the ongoing COVID-19 crisis. The objective is apparently to clear the backlog of essential treatment for cancer and other surgery procedures, which they say is made easier by splitting hospitals into ‘blue’ and ‘green’ sites across Lincolnshire. Grantham is intended to be Lincolnshire’s COVID-free ‘green site’.
This is certainly nothing to do with funding, since the national government recently wrote off £342m in debts for ULHT, I am assured that these changes are purely operational.
However, the changes are taking effect without the public having any of the normal opportunities to provide views through a consultation. By declaring an emergency measure, all of that has been cast aside – even though this past week we have seen the lowest number of COVID patients in our county’s hospitals since 1st April.
I of course welcome that Grantham Hospital will now be performing cancer surgery for patients from across Lincolnshire and that many other minor surgeries will be taking place here. I also welcome the re-opening of the emergency unit doors 24 hours a day 7 days a week, something I have been calling for very publicly.
However, the decision to remove all overnight admissions to the emergency unit when there are 110 beds at the hospital which cannot possibly all be used for surgery, is deeply confusing. Surely the hospital could be split so that beds are available for both surgery and emergency admissions?
Also, why make these changes “temporary” for 9 long months when other hospitals in the country, such as Cheltenham General for example, are making similar changes but for only 3 months?
Together with Dr Caroline Johnson MP, I have written to the ULHT Chief Executive calling on him to reconsider these changes for the safety of our local residents and to provide answers to our questions. (See attachment below)
I will not be quiet on this, I will always stand with the people of Grantham to get the services we not only deserve, but require for future generations to come.
