Pregnant women could face a 50-mile journey to the nearest maternity ward under plans to downgrade Boston’s Pilgrim Hospital.
A petition has been launched calling on health bosses to withdraw plans which could see services – including midwifery, paediatrics and vascular surgery – withdrawn from Boston and relocated to Lincoln County Hospital.
The petition follows confirmation from health commissioners in Lincolnshire that they are looking at two options of how care is delivered in Lincoln and Boston.
One involves having specialist consultants on one site, the other, a modified two site service, possibly with a single shared team.
Campaigners have called for the public to be involved in any decision, which could affect thousands of people in South Holland whose nearest hospital is Pilgrim.
Chief executive of United Lincolnshire Hospitals Trust (ULHT) Jan Sobieraj said nothing had been decided about where a centralised service would be based, if it happened.
He stressed the plans were not about saving money, but how resources could be best used to care for women needing specialist treatment during pregnancy.
Mr Sobieraj said there had already been some successes where a central specialist service had been introduced.
“Ten years ago if you said life expectancy would improve on the east coast by removing local services for cardiac care, and moving it to Lincoln… people would have questioned that,” he said.
“But that is exactly what happened.”
He added that any changes could take years to implement and the public would be engaged in the whole process.
The proposals were discussed at a meeting last Wednesday with campaigners, the Boston Focus Group.
Its chairman, Phillip Bosworth, said he hoped the public would be fully consulted.
“People in this area won’t want to be travelling 50 miles on a cold winter’s night in the snow when they are having difficulty in labour,” he added.
Plans to introduce more community midwives are also being considered.
The petition has been started by Mr Bosworth, at https://petition.parliament.uk.
If it attracts 10,000 signatures Government will respond and if 100,000 sign it the issue will be debated in Parliament.
Mr Bosworth said of the plans: “Lives will be at put at risk as it is a journey of one to two hours to Lincoln.
“Lincolnshire is the fourth largest county and has seen a huge rise in population due to immigration and the government should increase the provision of funding at Pilgrim and detach it from ULHT at Lincoln to ensure services not only remain in Pilgrim but services that have been taken away over the last few years return to Boston.
“The high population locally in south, east and coastal Lincs is greater than the whole of central Lincoln and our NHS local delivery of services must reflect that need.
