BITTER personal experience of a late-night emergency admission to hospital has prompted a petition to get a Lincolnshire town's A&E facilities improved.
Gainsborough councillor Tom Brown, 64, was rushed to Scunthorpe General Hospital in the middle of the night with chest pains and problems breathing.
He was checked over before being discharged at about 4am. He was wearing just a pair of his trousers, a hospital-issue blanket over his shoulders and paper shoes on his feet.
Now Mr Brown, of Fielding Way, has begun a petition to get 24- hour A&E provision restored to the town, a service that was withdrawn more than 10 years ago.
fake rolexThe John Coupland Hospital has a minor injuries service that sees and treats about 10,000 people a year and is open from 8am to 8pm daily.
Mr Brown said thousands of people in and around Gainsborough had signed the petition since its launch just over a week ago.
He said: "I think the lack of an A&E department in Gainsborough is becoming a real talking point.
"My only way of getting home from Scunthorpe at that time in the morning was to get a taxi, which replica breitling cost Pounds 30, and I was half- dressed as I'd been rushed to hospital at about 2am.
"It got me thinking I was probably not the only person this had happened to and that other people from Gainsborough had gone through that process.
"I spoke to a doctor who said he had been speaking about the need for a better arrangement for Gainsborough for a long time.
"The town is going to double in size soon and we need better health services."
Dr Martin McShane, director of strategic planning and health outcomes for NHS Lincolnshire, said anticipated changes in population and the impact on health care services are continuously monitored.
He said: "Patients with serious conditions and injuries will need to be treated at centres that can support all the equipment and staff required to meet their needs.
"For the best outcomes and safety of patients, NHS Lincolnshire works with providers and their clinicians to ensure the services we commission are in accordance with the principles publicly consulted on in Shaping Health For Lincolnshire.
"We will consider any petition with proper consideration and care."
An out-of-hours service is available countywide by calling 0845 0450281.
FAST FACTS THE Government identified Gainsborough as ripe for expansion in June last year.
The population of the town will rocket from 16,000 to 36,000 over the next 20 years.
Between 2,250 and 2,500 new private homes are envisaged in the first of three new neighbourhoods, which will be created in the next decade.
embroidered patches
Marshall's Yard, a Pounds 39m shopping centre, opened in Easter 2007 on the site of the engineering works that once employed more than 2,000 people. It won the British retail trade's top award for a new concept.
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