Pilgrim Hospital petition reaches the first Government milestone

Pilgrim Hospital could face losing some maternity services.
Pilgrim HospitalPilgrim Hospital
Pilgrim Hospital

Organised by Boston Focus Group, which is running an SOS Pilgrim Hospital campaign in response to plans to save money across the county’s health services, the petition has more than 10,100 signatures.

On reaching the milestone, the Government is required to give a response. If it reaches 100,000 it will be discussed in Parliament.

Philip Bosworth, one of the organisers, said: “Thank you to everyone for taking the time to sign and have your voice heard.

“Although this petition isn’t the golden ticket to stopping downgrades it goes a long way to showing the support this campaign has from the citizens of Boston, Spalding, Skegness and other surrounding towns and villages.”

The Focus Group launched its campaign to oppose potential plans put to Lincolnshire Health And Care (LHAC), which is reviewing services. This would include some maternity services moving to a single consultant-led site at Boston or Lincoln.

The petition description calls on United Lincolnshire Hospitals Trust, which runs Pilgrim, to stop the downgrading, but organisers say it applies equally to the LHAC review.

In a statement Boston and Skegness MP Matt Warman said: “Plans for the future of Lincolnshire healthcare haven’t been decided yet, and will rightly be led by clinicians.

“Nonetheless, I’m pleased this petition has now reached the threshold for a government response that will I’m sure confirm the Department for Health’s absolute commitment to getting the very best deal for Lincolnshire.”

The Lincolnshire Sustainable Services Review began in 2013 and later became the LHAC review. Other reviews have also been carried out by the ULHT and others, and these are set to feed into the review

It was said when the reviews began that doing nothing was ‘simply not an option’ and that by 2018 NHS health and care organisations in the county could have a combined budget deficit of upwards of £100m per year.

LHAC recently released it’s Case for Change report which is due to go for public consultation before the end of the year.

Neither LHAC nor ULHT wished to comment.

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