Hospital bosses approve A&E downgrade at Grantham to create Covid-19-free site for other surgery and treatments

The Trust board says the move will see thousands of patients who have had surgery and appointments postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic getting the treatment they need.

By redesignating Grantham Hospital, the board says it will enable the trust to carry out thousands more chemotherapy sessions, cancer surgeries and other elective surgeries for patients from across Lincolnshire, at Grantham.

This has been broadly welcomed by patient groups and councillors, but they are less happy about the subsequent downgrading of A&E and diversion of non-elective patients to other hospitals, although bossses insist this is temporary.

To ensure the safety of patients who may have weakened immune systems by these cancer treatments, Grantham’s site will ‘temporarily’ lose its A&E, currently open 8am-6.30pm, to be replaced by a 24/7 walk-in Urgent Treatment Centre with unplanned admissions transferred to other hospitals.

This will take place from Monday June 22. More details will follow over coming days what types of patients can utilise the urgent treatment service.

In addition, the trust will be reviewing all services run from the site to determine whether they can continue under the COVID-free model, or if they will need to be moved elsewhere on a temporary basis. Bosses are then planning to begin moving additional services and surgery to Grantham from their other hospitals in the following weeks.

Chief Executive at United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust, Andrew Morgan, said: “We continue to manage a global pandemic situation, but are working to find ways to offer a wider range of services to our patients where we can safely do so.

“We have thoroughly reviewed how we can offer more urgent elective care, such as cancer care, elective surgery, diagnostic and outpatient services whilst minimising the risk of infection where possible. This is of huge importance, as we have thousands of patients in Lincolnshire who are waiting for urgent treatment, including cancer care, and we need to find a way to provide this for them.

“We have determined that the best way to do this in the short term is to create a COVID-free hospital site to deliver most of this routine care in the short term. Grantham is the obvious choice for this.

“We know the change to the emergency care offer at Grantham will be of concern to our local population, but I would like to reassure everyone that this is a necessary step to ensure that we can deliver more elective care for the whole population of Lincolnshire in as safe a way as possible. I’d also like to make it very clear that this is only a temporary measure during these exceptional times.”

This change is said to be part of the Trust’s response to the level 4 national emergency, and accordingly will be reviewed when the current phase of the response nationally comes to an end. Based on current available information, this will run to the end of March 2021 but could be subject to change. It will be reviewed quarterly.

Mr Morgan said: “These are real people we are talking about. They are our loved ones, family and friends and as such we have a duty to restore our essential non-Covid services as quickly as possible to reduce the potential harm, minimise distress, minimise fear and minimise anxiety.

“People may fear we’re trying to undermine any long-term plans for the NHS in Lincolnshire – we’re not, we’re responding to a pandemic.”

The planned urgent treatment centre will be sited “in an isolated blue area” which would also include ambulatory care.

Mark Brassington, Deputy Chief Executive of the trust, said: “The impact this has had on our hospital sites is significant. All of these things have resulted in us not being able to see as many patients as we need or want to.

“We all want to do more activity and see more patients but we’ve got to do it safely. If a patient comes in for operation and subsequently contracts COVID there’s a likelihood they could die.

“It is imperative if we do it, we do it in the safest way possible.”

He also said: “Staying as we are, we believe, isn’t an option.”

Following the meeting campaigner Jody Clark said it was a “tough situation” especially in the face of the waiting lists.

She said she had been reassured over some aspects, but said it was still “gutting” that Grantham Hospital was the one in the firing line when the number of cases in the county was still low.

She called for Lincolnshire MPs to meet with government health bosses to “find an alternative way for our large rural counties, with very poor transport infrastructure, to provide health services to our whole communities, without leaving any of us miles away from appropriate care.”