Emily Norton

Hospitals in Lincolnshire will benefit from more than £12 million of improvements thanks to a much-needed government funding boost.

Investments will see wards refurbished, new estates built and digital solutions updated, as part of the latest funding announcement from the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC).

The investment is made up of:

• £5 million for two new laminar flow theatres at Grantham hospital
• £3.3m to refurbish and expand the critical surgical wards at Boston and Grantham hospitals
• £1.1 million towards the replacement of the digital cardiology system
• £2.5m for an artificial intelligence solution to support triage and management of the patient waiting list
• £600,000 for a digital solution to support the MSK pathway

Director of Finance and Digital at ULHT, Paul Matthew, said: “We are delighted to have been awarded this additional funding, which we believe will have a huge impact upon the care that we can provide to our patients as well as supporting our valuable staff.

“On top of this, our healthcare system in Lincolnshire has been granted additional funds to establish a new Citizen Atrium, which will help us to work better with our patients to understand how they access support and guidance.

“We are now working up our plans for these developments and proposed timescales.”

The group behind the annual Lincoln Medieval Market have promised they will return to the city, despite a heartbreaking break-in and burglary at the city’s oldest church.

As reported previously, traders from the Travelling Historical Market, run alongside the Lincoln Christmas Market, had been sleeping in St Mary le Wigford Church on High Street on the night of Saturday, December 4th when they were disturbed by the criminal.

The thief had helped themselves to handmade items from the stalls, and some of the artists’ takings, before their presence woke frightened stallholders.

Bravely, the traders gave chase, but sadly the perpetrator got away.

Writer Joanne Major, who was selling copies of her books at the event, told The Lincolnite: “Some of the traders were sleeping in the church and were woken by the thief shining a light looking for more to steal. Obviously that terrified them.

“The traders have had a bad couple of years with events been cancelled due to Covid and many were at Ludlow Medieval Fayre last weekend where tents and stock got destroyed in Storm Arwen.”

To add to the independent group’s misfortune, costumed volunteer Tom Kay was also targeted by thieves.

Tom had travelled from Barnsley to work at the market dressed as a knight, promoting the market and letting children have their picture taken with him.

Joanne said: “He’d parked his car in the car park off King St overnight while he stayed in St Mary’s Guildhall with the traders there. He discovered that someone had stolen his catalytic converter.”

Both incidents have been reported to police.

Traders thanked those who turned out to support the event on the last day of market weekend, many of whom had seen the news of the break-in on The Lincolnite.

Joanne added: “We had a lot of people turn up who had seen it, and who’d come out to support the market because of it so it was a big help.

“We haven’t heard anything else about the thefts, and while they were unpleasant, they certainly haven’t put us off. The Medieval Market will definitely return next year, hopefully even bigger and better.”

The event was spread across the church and St Mary’s Guildhall, a genuine Medieval building and one of the city’s oldest.

“We’ll be back in the same location as we like the fact that we’re able to bring the Christmas Market experience down to the lower High Street, and showcase the history of that area of the city. So many locals came into the Guildhall saying that they’d always wanted to see inside, and were amazed with what they found.

“We might not be right in the centre of the main market, but we think it’s worth the effort to find us!”

The Lincolnite has contacted Lincolnshire Police for an update on the investigation.