Grantham Hospital A&E and the Chorley A&E link

 It seems the doctor shortage excuse is now being used to close other A&E's?

I've just heard that the A&E at Grantham hospital, one of 3 hospital A&E's run by United Lincolnshire Hospitals Trust (ULHT), is proposed to be closed during night hours due to a shortage of doctors. However, as usual, since Grantham is the smallest A&E of three A&E's (the others being at Lincoln and Boston) so it is a prime target to be closed and replaced with an Urgent care centre.

The Lincolnshire Trust tried to close the Grantham A&E in May saying patients would receive better and more specialist care at Lincoln, but that proposal came across a storm of protest from MP's, residents and the council.

NOW, the Lincolnshire Trust are back again but this time the justification for closing the Grantham A&E is a shortage of doctors (sound familiar?).

The Lincolnshire trust claim there are not enough doctors to cover the Grantham A&E yet clearly the doctor cover at the other 2 A&E's aren't even mentioned!

ALL doctor numbers given are for all THREE A&E's and they refusing to say WHY they've allowed this to happen.

It seems the doctor shortage excuse is now being used to close many A&E's?

Ironically, as with the May proposal, Dr Kapadia, medical director at the Lincolnshire Trust, is once again pushing to close the A&E under the doctor shortage pretext... .. but check out his comments from May this year....

"Dr Sunil Kapadia, medical director of ULHT, agreed that the A&E department at Grantham is already an urgent care centre in all but name. He said centralised specialist centres, such as the Heart Centre in Lincoln, proved that the system worked providing a better standard of care with better results.

Dr Kapadia said: “There are clear standards set down by Government that are expected from emergency departments and if you cannot meet them then you are an urgent care centre.”

I wonder if the medical director of LTH Trust is thinking the same way as this about the A&E at Chorley hospital? "an urgent care centre in all but name", "don't meet government standards then it's adios A&E at Chorley? "

Can the reasons given for closing our A&E departments be justified?

Whichever way, the people of Chorley & South Ribble will be doing all they can and protests will continue until our A&E at Chorley is re-opened.

Related:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-lincolnshire-37026000