Protest to be held in Skegness over plans to close children's services at hospital

Local Labour Party members are gathering support to meet outside the Town Hall tomorrow (Thursday) ahead of an extraordinary meeting of Skegness Town Council called to discuss the matter.

Options for children’s services are still being discussed with United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust claiming that due to major staff shortages it is unable to run the service safely at Pilgrim Hospital.

A move to Lincoln is one of the options ibeing considered, but the Labour Party fears any closure would impact obstetric and neonatal services.

Their poster calling for support for tomorrow night’s the protest states: “As if we haven’t already suffered from reduced services in Skegness and Louth.

“As if Boston wasn’t already too far to travel.

“We need the council to do all in their power to protect local services.”

Local Conservatives also expressed their outrage over the plans at the Skegness Conservative Branch meeting on Thursday night.

Coun Steve Kirk, who sits on the Towb Council, said: “In exchange for paying our taxes we expect a reasonable level of service from bodies such as the NHS.

“Expecting our children and their families to travel from Skegness to Lincoln for treatment falls way below that reasonable level.

“If ULHT us unable to operate this service safely at the Pilgrim because of staffing shortages, as stated in its report, then maybe it is time for central government to intervene and ensure sufficient staffing for this essential local service can be found.”

The extraordinary meeting of Skegness Town Council is being held tomorrow (Thursday) at the Town Hall in North Parade at 7pm, with the protest to start at 6.30pm.

Mayor of Skegness, Coun Danny Brookes said: “It’s such a crucial topic the council are meeting to discuss the implications of such a closure to residents and visitors to Skegness.

“There are concerns about the implications to the ambulance service if they have further to go.”