Health consultation meeting in Grantham turns 'chaotic' after protesters gather in town centre
A public consultation meeting on the future of county health services, including Grantham A&E, became 'chaotic' and shambolic' last night after there were heated exchanges.
Councillor Ray Wootten, who was attending the meeting at the Jubilee Church Life Centre, said it almost had to be stopped because of comments made by a campaigner.
Melissa Darcey, of Fighting 4 Life Lincolnshire, said she stormed out of the meeting because of comments made by Dr David Baker, Grantham GP and clinical lead at Lincolnshire Clinical Commissioning Group, on the future of health services.
The CCG is carrying out an Acute Services Review until December 23 and members of the public are being asked to take part at www.lincolnshire.nhs.uk
Coun Wootten, a district and county councillor who represents St Wulfram's ward where Grantham hospital is located, said: "She was totally out of order and she should apologise to Dr Baker. I believe in the right to protest but this was a public meeting and it erupted into a shambolic, chaotic meeting.
"Other people also interrupted speakers and others attending found it difficult to hear and to ask questions. The meeting was close to being closed due to their behaviour, but the main speaker pulled it back.
"I always think that it is disgusting that front line workers get abuse but I found it shameful to attack members of the NHS at this meeting doing their job.The meeting calmed down as the person left as they repeated their accusations as they walked out."
Ms Darcey, who had organised a protest to take place before the meeting in St Peter's Hill, said what Dr Baker had told the meeting was wrong. She added: "How can they consult on something that has already been done? They have already taken away our acute care unit. We had nine ACU beds and now we have four ACU community beds which is not the same thing.
"I have been given this information by staff but David Baker said I was wrong. I walked out but most of those at the meeting were asking me to stay.
"They are just lying to us. The tension was very high in the meeting. They are dressing it all up as lovely but we have got to emphasise why it is not going to be that way."
The public are being consulted on four main areas of health in the county including Grantham A&E and acute medicine at Grantham. The CCG has already said that it favours an urgent treatment centre to replace A&E at Grantham.
Ms Darcey said the protesters in St Peter' Hill had "made a lot of noise and were very passionate".
She also said that one of the protesters suffered a fit just before the consultation meeting was due to begin and only a few minutes before Grantham A&E was due to close at 6.30pm. She said this highlighted the need for a full 24/7 A&E at the hospital. The protester later recovered.
A&E has been closed overnight at Grantham Hospital since 2016.
A spokesperson for Lincolnshire CCG told the Journal: "It is not correct that either the SDEC (same day emergency care) or the ACU (acute care unit) services at Grantham & District Hospital have closed. They continue to be part of the hospital's services. During the Covid pandemic the six bedded ACU was temporarily closed to ensure the separation of medical and surgical patients for safety reasons. These beds were immediately re-provided on the surgical and medical wards where they remain. Since this time the overall number of beds has increased to eight.
"The Acute Medicine change proposals being consulted upon relate to the way care is delivered on the Acute Medicine wards at Grantham and District Hospital, none of which are the Acute Care Unit. The change proposal focuses on retaining this service, retaining acute specialists and strengthening it through greater integration with community and primary care providers. There is no planned reduction to the number of acute medicine beds under the proposal.
"Secondly, a number of members of the public raised concern regarding the nature of some of the comments directed at NHS staff at last night's public consultation event in Grantham, and that the conduct of a small group of attendees had jeopardised their opportunity to ask the questions important to them. Fortunately this issue was managed allowing the event to continue as planned. We would like to highlight that the abuse of NHS staff will not be tolerated.
"Thirdly, we apologise for the slight delay in the start time of the event. This was due to Drs Baker and Owen caring for the needs of an unwell member of public. We would like to thank our NHS partners EMAS for their quick arrival to the scene to support."
