Grantham Hospital: 24-hour urgent care opens replacing A&E

The 24-hour unit replaces the A&E department, which has only operated in the daytime since 2016

A new urgent treatment centre (UTC) providing a 24-hour service at Grantham Hospital has opened to patients.

It replaces the hospital's A&E department, which became a daytime-only service in 2016 as a result of severe staffing challenges.

The walk-in unit will treat people with urgent but not life-threatening issues.

Bosses said they were "pleased to be able to restore a 24-hour service" offering various diagnostic facilities including X-rays, CT and MRI scans.

Campaigners who wanted to retain a "full Type 1 A&E" unit had initially labelled the change as a "downgrade".

United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust chief operating officer Michelle Harris said the UTC was "equipped to see and treat the vast majority of patients".

"Due to the limitations of the hospital's size, staffing and available support services, the A&E at Grantham has only been able to treat a limited number of patients for a number of years, with those suffering from serious trauma, heart attacks, strokes and paediatric emergencies being directed to other hospitals for specialist care," she said.

"The service offered at the new UTC will be very similar, and will be delivered by a skilled range of doctors, GPs, practitioners and nursing staff, many of whom have worked in the A&E at Grantham for many years."

Sunil Hindocha, medical director for Lincolnshire integrated care board (ICB), said: "We're pleased that the decision taken following public consultation on this service is now being implemented, giving people local to Grantham the 24/7 access to urgent and emergency care services they told us was so important in their feedback."