November 10, 2020 10.39 am This story is over 40 months old

Grantham hospital risks losing COVID-free status after spike in cases

100 inpatients were recorded at the weekend
| Photo: Kylie Warrington for The Lincolnite

Grantham Hospital will struggle to remain a COVID-free site due to increasing coronavirus cases and admissions to Lincolnshire hospitals, health bosses have said.

This is according to Andrew Morgan, Chief Executive of United Lincolnshire Hospitals Trust (ULHT), who said on BBC Radio Lincolnshire that cases “peaked over the weekend at over 100 inpatients, which is roughly the same as we had at the height of wave one.”

ULHT chiefs turned Grantham Hospital into a COVID-free urgent treatment centre (UTC) in order to catch up on a backlog of surgeries and to resume cancer treatments.

Andrew Morgan explained he “couldn’t say at the moment that we are over this or that we can predict exactly today or tomorrow how many patients we are going to have, but certainly the numbers have increased.”

The number of spare beds is small at the moment and ULHT is still catching up from wave one, with capacity under considerable pressure.

Grantham Hospital has been carrying out record numbers of surgeries since its reassignment, but the increase in Lincolnshire COVID numbers is putting immense pressure on its facilities.

Andrew Morgan assured that “we are doing everything we can to maintain that green site work.”

However, bed capacity will need to be looked at if numbers continue to climb.

He added that “If acute pressures become too bad, that is something we will have to have another look at.”

Lincolnshire’s assistant director of public health, Tony McGinty agreed with Andrew Morgan and added it will be “harder as we go along to maintain Grantham in the position that it’s in.”