It’s hoped that making Grantham Hospital a “largely COVID free site” will help patients awaiting operations across Lincolnshire.
The United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust, which oversees that hospital, Pilgrim Hospital in Boston, Lincoln County Hospital and Louth Hospital, has made the move following a meeting of its board this morning (Thursday).
The trust says creating a COVID free site will enable it to carry out thousands more chemotherapy sessions, cancer surgeries and other elective surgeries for patients from across Lincolnshire, at Grantham.
All patients would need to have “a known COVID status” while the A and E will be made into a 24 hour Urgent Treatment Centre from Monday June 22.
Non-emergency operations were postponed following the COVID-19 outbreak.
A spokesman for the trust, said: “In addition, we 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.
“We are then planning to begin moving additional services and surgery to Grantham from our 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.”
