Medical services at Grantham Hospital
The medical services at Grantham Hospital support urgent and acute patients in the A&E Department, on the in-patient wards and in the out-patients department. There is currently a range of medical conditions which Grantham Hospital does not provide services for, meaning that the most acutely ill patients with life threatening illness and injuries go to a more specialist site, first time to receive treatment. Specialist doctors from Lincoln Hospital also remotely support Grantham Hospital staff and patients (using online technology) when required.
Why we need to change?
Across the county, there are not enough consultants to deliver medical services in all three hospitals and, like many areas of the country, the service is unable to recruit to these posts.
We need to get patients to the right specialists quickly, matching patient need to the appropriate expertise.
The current service at Grantham deals with a restricted range of cases and receives fewer patients than the other hospitals.
What are the ‘emerging options’?
There are two emerging options.
The first emerging option is to maintain inpatient medical services at Grantham Hospital and adopt a new model whereby they are joined up with local primary and community services and managed as part of the local enhanced neighbourhood team. This new model would be led by Community Health Services (not ULHT) with hospital doctors and the hospital services being part of an integrated service with GP services, community health and other local services.
Local senior clinicians (hospital, GP, community and ambulance staff) have worked together to develop this emerging option. This is aimed at keeping people at home for as long as possible and when hospital care is required delivering that in Grantham Hospital and supporting patients to get back home safely, as quickly as possible. This integrated service model would also deliver more ambulatory care (which is medical care provided on an outpatient basis, including diagnosis, observation, consultation, treatment, intervention, and rehabilitation services). A small number of patients currently seen and treated on the Grantham site would be admitted to hospitals with more specialist services. This is the NHS’s preferred emerging option.
The second emerging option is to have no medical inpatient services at Grantham Hospital. Diagnostics and outpatients would continue.
The benefits of the NHS’s preferred emerging option could include:
- Community and hospital teams will be working as one team to prevent hospital admissions, providing coordinated care when hospital is required, and where possible reduce the length of time patients stay in hospital, working to the principle of care closer to home
- Treating patients, especially older people, close to home makes more sense for them as well as the NHS and is often safer
- The majority of patients currently treated at Grantham Hospital will continue to be treated at Grantham Hospital
- The most acutely ill patients will get the right specialist care, first time.
