Grantham hospital campaigners have attacked proposals that could see the town's A&E downgraded to an Urgent Treatment Centre (UTC).

The criticism follows the NHS Lincolnshire Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) today announcing the start of a formal consultation exercise on the future of four local hospital services.

The consultation runs for 12 weeks until December 23.

The services being consulted on are:

• Orthopaedics (elective and non-elective) countywide
• Stroke services countywide
• Urgent and emergency care at Grantham hospital
• Acute medicine at Grantham hospital

As part of this consultation, the CCG says it will be sharing extensive information on the services, their challenges and how they may be improved. It says it would prefer Grantham Hospital to have a 24/7 Urgent Treatment Centre instead of the current A&E, which lost its 24/7 operations in 2016. During the pandemic the A&E was replaced by such an UTC as Grantham Hospital became a Covid-free 'green zone' allowing it to focus on cancer and other treatments. The A&E was 'restored' at the end of June this summer, as reported by Nub News. However, campaigners say the consultation confirms fears that health bosses have long sought to downgrade Grantham Hospital's A&E permanently. Jody Clark, of Fighting 4 Grantham Hospital, said: "We have waited years for this chance to share our views on local health services. As we were aware from the "Healthy Conversations" events, we will not be offered an A&E. The options include a 24 hour Urgent Treatment Centre. "I hope everyone shares their views, including how they feel about the loss of A&E. But a bit of relief that we will finally get a future model and we will know what we will have available. We will keep finding ways to protect and improve our services at Fighting 4 Grantham Hospital and will be sharing the consultation too." Grantham district and county councillor Ray Wootten said: "The Acute Service Review report published today (Thursday) calling for Grantham Hospital to become a Urgent Treatment Centre 24/7 instead of an A&E clearly demonstrates to me that Residents, campaigners and local councillors voices has been totally disregarded. "The Urgent Treatment Centre provided an excellent service when it was open and I heard only positive feedback but it is NOT an A&E. " Coun Wootten added: "I will still campaign and support calls for a new hospital for Grantham and surrounding District as our population continues to expand and travel to other hospitals are expensive. I ask that when the consultation comes to your home that as many of you engage by continuing to make your views known." Melissa Darcey of Fighting 4 Life Lincolnshire said: "The long-awaited Public Consultation has finally arrived...only 5 years too late! "The plans are in place, the services have been cut to the point where we already have a level 3 A&E (mostly) and not the level 1 A&E we had prior to the closure and subsequent downgrading of services in August 2016. She continued: "This is a predetermined consultation, we all already know what the outcome will be as it has been written in plans since at least 2014....this is nothing more than a tick-box process to cover their backs, the questionnaire will be filled with loaded, closed questions and the outcome will not be in the best interests of the community of Grantham and District. "The clinical lead should be ashamed of his involvement in the downgrading of our local services, some of which helped him obtain his career." However, NHS bosses have defended their move. John Turner, Chief Executive of NHS Lincolnshire CCG said: "It is no secret that the NHS in Lincolnshire has a number of long terms issues to resolve, and I know that our staff and patients have waited for some time to hear our proposals around the future of some of these services, and for the opportunity to influence what happens. "Through our Healthy Conversation engagement exercise in 2019, we heard that the people of Lincolnshire want high quality services, delivered in local communities, and that we need to preserve our hospital services for those who really need it. "This public consultation exercise is the next step in this listening exercise, where we can for the first time reveal the full background of our thinking, the challenges that we face and the recommendations which we believe will best serve our population. "I want to encourage as many people as possible to participate in this consultation, and give us your open and honest opinions via the consultation questionnaire so that we can work together to shape the future of these hospital services." Grantham-based Dr Dave Baker, GP and Clinical Lead at the CCG said: "Expert clinicians from across our local NHS have worked extremely hard over the past few years to develop the proposals in this consultation, prioritising what is safest and best for our patients within the constraints that we have. "We know that some of our services cannot stay as they are, because they don't always meet safety standards or performance targets, they are inefficient or we struggle to staff them sufficiently. "We all now need to embrace the idea of changing and modernising to bring about better outcomes for our patients and better services, that are safely staffed and high performing. "I know that members of our communities will have questions and feedback about some of the changes being discussed as part of this consultation, and I'd encourage everyone to get involved in a conversation about this, so that we can take that feedback into account when planning these services for the future." The CCG says it aims to give everyone across the county the opportunity to have their say. Anyone wanting to take part will be invited to complete a questionnaire to help it gather people's feedback on the plans. Alongside this, will be a range of other ways to get involved including public meetings, virtual meetings, marketplace meet-ups and website events. In addition, our website and social media pages will be sharing the latest information on the topics above and links to the questionnaire. The CGG adds it is particularly keen to hear from seldom heard groups and those who are economically disadvantaged and will be working closely with our engagement teams and members of the voluntary sector to ensure as many people as possible are given a voice. It says it will continue to share information through its hospital sites, GP practices, and other venues to ensure people remain fully up-to-date throughout the consultation. Full details of all the ways to get involved can be found on the Lincolnshire NHS website.