Support refused for proposed changes to hospital urology services

Lincolnshire County Council’s Health Scrutiny Committee has refused to back current proposals going out to consultation on changes to hospital urology services.

“While some of the proposed changes like the increased theatre capacity in Grantham is welcome, there are some serious impacts on local communities which we can’t ignore” said Councillor Carl Macey, Chair of the Health Scrutiny Committee.

Under the proposals, Lincoln County Hospital would receive all emergency urology admissions over a week, while Grantham and Pilgrim Hospital in Boston would tackle other planned urology services. Louth County Hospital would continue to provide the same services. United Lincolnshire Hospital Trust (ULHT) want to make the changes to increase capacity to perform planned surgery without disruption to patients, better meet the needs of emergency cases and treat more people.

Councillor Macey added: “The Boston community will see this quite rightly as important emergency urology services being removed from their hospital when they want to see more commitment to a full range of better services. We also have concerns about the impact on ‘walk-in’ patients at the Pilgrim who would be transferred to Lincoln.

“There’s also the hugely important issue of patients having to travel long distances to Lincoln for treatment rather than Boston. The proposals are also unclear about who qualifies for non-emergency patient transport when discharged from Lincoln Hospital to the south and east of the county. And we have reservations over the impact on EMAS’s ability to respond to other emergency calls.”

” For these reasons I’m writing to ULHT on behalf of the committee, outlining why we can’t support the full proposals at this time.”

Planned urology services are currently delivered from Lincoln County Hospital, Pilgrim Hospital in Boston, Grantham and Louth Hospitals. Emergency urology admissions at the weekends go through one single site, alternating between Lincoln and Pilgrim Hospitals. There are emergency admissions at both Lincoln and Pilgrim Hospitals during the week.