Grantham Hospital could be set aside to be 'COVID-free' as part of plans to restore some essential services.

Bosses at United Lincolnshire Hospital Trust said they were still in the early stages of planning and waiting to confirm details which of its four hospitals the trust might use, if any.

Grantham Hospital has been raised by some hospital campaigners as offering potential for non-COVID treatments as it has dealt with far fewer COVID cases than Lincoln and Boston hospitals.

Grantham councillor Ray Wootten, a member of Lincolnshire County Council's health scrutiny committee, says he would welcome such a move, as long as it did not involve any downgrading of services and facilities at Grantham Hospital.

Coun Wootten told Grantham Nub News: "It's got the facilities and the space to do it. If it gives a more higher profile and attracts more patients and more funding, it's a good idea. I don't want to see Grantham Hospital downgraded in any way."

The United Lincolnshire Hospitals Trust, which runs Grantham Hospital has confirmed it is exploring providing a "physical separation" between those patients who potentially have COVID-19 and patients requiring routine care in disease-free environments.

Chief Executive Andrew Morgan said: "Nationally, the NHS is entering the next phase of the COVID 19 pandemic and this requires all NHS organisations to develop plans to safely restore some essential non-COVID services.

"We are now working on plans to safely increase the urgent elective care that we provide in our hospitals, as well as reintroducing some non-urgent elective care for our patients.

"At all times, we will prioritise measures to minimise hospital transmission of COVID-19 to protect patients and staff."

The potential move comes as ULHT said today the number of COVID-19 patients discharged from its hospitals has reached 300.

Deputy chief executive Mark Brassington confirmed the news on social media.

He said: "Teams are doing a tob job in managing COVID and non-COVID patients.

"At the same time they are adapting services to safely increase the number of patients we can see and treat."

According to the latest government statistics, Lincolnshire has had 1,118 confirmed cases and 139 deaths across its hospitals

Health bosses have highlighted how the number of new cases or deaths has been decreasing recently, often seeing just one or two new figures a day.

Andy Fox, consultant in public health at Lincolnshire County Council said: "Increases are far lower than they were at the peak of the virus so it shows that lockdown has had an effect it has worked.

"We're now cautiously trying to relax those measures and try and keep that reproduction number below one in order to make sure that we still keep trending down rather than start to go up again."

Lincolnshire has had one of the lowest infection rates in the country, far below neighbouring authorities such as Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire.

Additional Reporting by Grantham Nub News