Sosgh response to Hospital Trust promise to improve services

Charmaine Morgan , Chair SOS Grantham Hospital says…

If the United Lincolnshire Hospital Trust and Clinical Commissioning Group had listened to local staff and local people and kept services at Grantham open it would have put less pressure on struggling Lincoln Hospital. They cut our services to get more patients at Lincoln to boost its status as a training Hospital. Grantham was a training hospital partnered with Nottingham until restructure and subsequently SW Lincolnshire CCG and ULHT ripped services out. It still outperforms Lincoln and Boston.

The loss of our maternity, childrens, trauma and acute services to name a few were shameful and dangerous given distances to alternative District and Specialist hospitals. This risk and impact is worsened taking into account the level of low income homes with children, disabled and elderly in the Grantham area, and, poor public transport and rural road network.

Campaigners faught hard to get save services and restore the much needed 24/7 acute care. Patient numbers prove the need is there.

Not only have the services been lost but the Trust have failed to put into place adequate patient transport services to support patients, especially those needing A&E at night. A recently agreed East Midlands Ambulance patient transport contract excludes night cover of A&E patients. 

If they are serious, with a growing population in this area, NHS providers must review its decisions and restore the services for Grantham residents and visitors accessible to Lincoln and Boston residents and those south of our District via Peterborough Hospital. The current situation is not only putting patients in the Grantham and  District Hospital at risk. It is fundamentally unfair to our patients and to our staff.

On responding to the South Kesteven District Local Plan, I noted the difference in travel times between our District’s Market towns to access A&E, maternity, children’s and acute services. Stamford, Bourne and Market Deeping were between 7 and 13 miles whereas Grantham residents must travel 30 miles at least to access these vital services.

Furthermore, it is concerning the Government push to treat patients at home, rather than provide more NHS hospital beds for recouperating patients, will put more people at risk as such care provision is stretched across our large rural county. At the same time, under Reform,  Lincolnshire County Council are proposing to reduce dependency on their services. 

Our publicly funded NHS is precious.  Overall it is doing a remarkable job and NHS staff are constantly juggling resources on the frontline. We need to appreciate all of them and encourage more to come here. We also need to train our next generation of NHS and social care workers if we are to stand a chance of getting our services back in Grantham and across Lincolnshire.

Regards