Chair of SoS Grantham Hospital, Coun Charmaine Morgan says….
The news yesterday that United Lincolnshire Hospital Trust is to double the size of Boston A&E may be good news for Boston area residents but is a slap in the face for 120,000 people in the Grantham and District Hospital area who are to see their A&E downgraded to an Urgent Treatment Centre and other acute services lost if the CCG ASR plans under Public Consultation go ahead.
Grantham residents already see emergency ambulances drive past their hospital at night thanks to the ULHT night closure of the Grantham A&E unit in 2016. The proposed Urgent Treatment Centre will not replace an A&E unit, even if it is open 24/7.
This latest news will no doubt be welcome in Boston but brings into question the reasons we are being told our A&E unit must go from Grantham.
How can ULHT staff the doubling in size of Boston A&E, and associated ACU admissions, when Lincolnshire CCG and United Lincolnshire Hospital Trust are telling us there aren’t enough doctors and consultants in the County to keep all our A&E and other acute services going? Are they robbing Peter to pay Paul?
Local children and babies, elderly and acute stroke patients are particularly affected. Some residents with chronic conditions need time critical care. For example those with brain injuries must receive treatment within less than 15 minutes if they have a seizure. They are living in fear.
The timing of the announcement brings into question the validity of the Lincolnshire Clinical Commissioning Group Public Consultation, currently taking place and which is not due for completion until late December 2021, regarding Acute Service plans for the entire county.
It appears the NHS decision makers are predetermined and already committed to taking key staff and services from Grantham and diverting them elsewhere in the County before we have even had a chance to comment on the negative impact most of the plans will have.
This news proves what campaigners here have been arguing. The poorly worded CCG consultation is a sham and key decisions already made. For the Ccg the consultation is a tick box exercise. They have certainly failed to reflect a previous petition of 33k opposing our A&E downgrade submitted during the Healthy Conversation in their circulating ASR consultation documents.
Whilst we are pleased for those who will benefit from the investment the CCG and ULHT action will put over 700 lives in the Grantham area a year at risk using Ccg figures alone. This is an underestimate when you look at how many acutely ill patients had to travel when our A&E was closed last year with Covid 19 as an excuse.
Improving A&E services at Lincoln or Boston will do little to make up for Acute services loss in Grantham. Too many critically ill people here will not survive the cross county journey or will arrive in a worse condition.
The CCG have a duty to care for us all based on medical need. Our critical needs will be ignored. This includes Grantham area emergency stroke care needs which do not even get mentioned in the latest poorly worded ASR report.
We will have our say nonetheless. Our new petition is available online and available for download. It opposes the loss of the range of acute services in Grantham and District Hospital identified in the ASR:
(the content of the petition is available attached)
An Sosgh online petition with comments and children’s letters totalling over 33,000 people responded to the Healthy Conversation. The weight of opinion opposing a downgrade of the Grantham and District Hospital A&E is not reflected in the Ccg ASR public consultation documentation circulating now. Nor does it ask the key question: Do you support the downgrade of Grantham and District A&E?
There is even more at stake now and our joint campaign Petition reflects our concerns.
I trust the LCC Health Scrutiny Cttee and all NHS and elected representatives will take the concerns attached on board.
The ASR raises questions for the local planning authority, South Kesteven and Newark District Councils, too.
We are repeatedly asked how can Grantham growth plans go ahead sustainably when the Councils will be inviting over 7000 more households, to move into an area which is a virtual black hole, thanks to a decade of NHS strategic decisions affecting people in Grantham and surrounding area, as far as maternity, trauma and acute emergency services are concerned?
We wait the answer to that question.
Have residents and councils to the west and south of Grantham been consulted given the hospitals proximity and accessibility from neighbouring authorities?
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