The battle for the future of services at Grantham Hospital continues since the temporary downgrade of Grantham and District Hospital A&E and loss of a significant range of other out patient and medical services at the hospital by United Lincolnshire Hospitals Trust.

After calling for SKDC to hold an Emergency Meeting, which took place on 1 July, Labour Group Leader and Chair SOS Grantham Hospital District Councillor Charmaine Morgan also sent Freedom of Information requests to East Midlands Ambulance Service and United Lincolnshire Hospital Trust.

My concern was to understand how the decision was made and what consideration went into safely managing the impact of the changes on our community given the scope of changes and differing needs and situations, be it age, health or income of those affected.

I am still waiting a response from ULHT but the response from EMAS has been received.

It confirms a widely held suspicion that shockingly, when ULHT opted to close Grantham A&E, whilst EMAS was informed and party to some operational discussions, our health body did NOT formerly consult with emergency ambulance provider EMAS beforehand. Nor did EMAS take part in the design of the replacement service.

The EMAS response also confirms the average journey times to Lincoln A&E from Grantham and outlying areas between January 2018 and January 2020 was between 49 minutes and one hour and 10 minutes. In order for resuscitation to take place safely the ambulance crew should stop the vehicle.

In that period in total 2034 patients from our area were transferred to Lincoln. Of these 16 were Category 1 which means '... An immediate response to a life threatening condition, such as cardiac or respiratory arrest. Response required in 7 minutes.'

Furthermore, 1499 patients were treated as Category 2. Category 2 patients are '... classed as an emergency for a potentially serious condition that may require rapid assessment, urgent on-scene intervention and/or urgent transport. For example, a person may have had a heart attack or stroke, or be suffering from sepsis or major burns.'

35 patients were classed as Category 3, needing urgent treatment with a focus on pain relief.

Even though this only forms part of our picture, with patients transferred elsewhere excluded, it is hugely concerning so many are in the higher categories of risk. There appears to be a fine line between Category 1 and 2 patients.

When we consider the added journey times and the fact nationally the Nuffield Trust have identified emergency ambulances are increasingly missing target times set since 2017 we have to ask what made ULHT think putting more pressure on an already stretched ambulance service is a good idea?

Furthermore, with full patient stabilisation & intubation requiring a qualified A&E medical team how many local lives in total have they been gambling with since our A&E closed at night, and, worse now, since they added the day time closure?

On a wider note, given so much is at stake, why are A&E units downgrading or closing when emergency ambulance response times nationally are worsening?