Grantham Hospital artwork used to brighten up eyesore

Schoolchildren have brightened up an eyesore at the front of Grantham Hospital with artwork.

Children from two Grantham schools have provided the artwork which has been hung on fencing which cordons off the old hospital at the front of the site on Manthorpe Road.

The building is derelict and could be demolished to make way for another development, although the United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS trust says there are no plans for the site yet.

Jody Clark, of campaign group Fighting 4 Grantham Hospital, came up with the idea to brighten up the area. She hopes that more schools and residents of care homes will also provide artwork for the site.

Pupils at Ingoldsby Academy and Sandon School have so far provided artwork.

Mrs Clark said: “I am really hopeful that more people will get involved. The only thing that we ask for is that the artwork is laminated, but the subject can be anything.”

If anybody wants to contribute artwork they should email jodyclark@hotmail.co.uk or dizzynett@yahoo.com and they will collect it.

Mrs Clark said that she hoped that the old hospital site would become the site for a Lincolnshire breast centre, although talks on this are at an early stage. She also said she hoped that if the building was demolished, a lot of the brickwork would be used in any new building that replaced it.

At the annual general meeting of United Lincolnshire Hospitals Trust (ULHT) last week, Grantham councillor Ray Wootten asked what the plans were for the future of the old hospital which he said was in a “disgraceful condition”.

He said former chief executive Jane Lewington has promised there would be a day surgery centre at the hospital but nothing had come of this.

ULHT chief executive Jan Sobieraj said: “On the front of the building where we agree ‘it’s an eyesore’, do we or do we not need that building and that is something we have not resolved yet.

“At the moment we are not clear. What we do want to do is more elective work and we are doing more opthalmology work and we want to do more orthopaedics.”

Deputy chief executive of the trust, Kevin Turner, told the meeting the it had been decided that the £5 million cost of day surgery centre at Grantham was “prohibitive”.

He added: “That may mean we will not have an all-singing, all-dancing facility at Grantham.

“But we do want to see more elective surgery at Grantham.”