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.”
The Lincolnite welcomes your views. All comments are reactively-moderated and must obey the house rules. Please stay on topic and be respectful of other readers.
Almost two months on from Network Rail stating it had implemented “new cleaning regimes” for its railway bridge on Brayford Wharf East, the same concerns of graffiti, dirt and moss growth are continuing — and we are no clearer on how regularly the bridge is cleaned.
The bridge, which opened in 2019 in a bid to improve public safety on the railway crossing, is regularly used by many commuters and residents in Lincoln, but it has been the topic of a cleanliness discussion for many months now.
A City of Lincoln Councillor was forced to apologise for disregarding parents and the disabled during a debate on the Central Car Park last night.
Councillors were discussing a Conservative motion calling for a full review of the city centre facility amid a £150,000 spend on repairs to its lifts, alongside multiple complaints about parking machines being down and, recently, queues to exit following Remembrance Day and other events.
Whatsapp
