11,000 support campaign to save specialist services at leading Sussex hospital

Proposals have been put forward to merge the Queen Victoria Hospital in East Grinstead with a new organisation to be formed by Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals and Western Sussex Hospitals Foundation Trust.

But a patient action group called Save Our Specialist Services - SOSS - is concerned about the merger and is urging the newly elected Foundation’s Public Governors to protect future access to the hospital’s vital services for patients from Sussex, Surrey, Kent, and all over the UK.

More than 11,000 have signed a protest petition with many sharing stories of how the Queen Victoria has helped them.

Patient Ali Parks said: “I was 31 years old, an NHS therapist, with a two-year-old and three-month-old baby when I was told I had a large life-threatening brain tumour.

“The subsequent treatment left me with a severe facial palsy among other things (single sided deafness, balance issues). To say the effects were life-changing and devastating is an understatement.

“I struggled with my speech, eating and drinking, loss of loved activities like swimming and I lost my smile. I was referred to QVH in 2013 and wow what an incredible service the eye clinic provide.

“I travel 160 miles round trip to receive my treatment as there is nothing where I live that provides that service. I am seen in the eye clinic where I’ve had two surgeries under the incredible team there and I have received physio/Botox from the Facial Palsy clinic ever since.

“It is a long way to come but I would travel the length of the UK for the care I get there. With their help, support, advice and care, I have made immense physical but almost more importantly psychological recovery.

“Please do not stop these services for people like me - it is our lifeline and our hope, happiness and health depend on being able to access these specialist services.

“Words cannot describe the difference they have made and my fear is for people yet to start that same journey that may never get the care I have been lucky enough to receive if this acquisition goes ahead.”

Another patient, Barbara Porter, said: “I was a patient at QVH in 2017 and again 2019 for major skin grafts to both legs following separate accidents.

“The team who looked after me were brilliant and the care 110 per cent.

“The follow up care was second to none. I remember the souls who were members of the Guinea Pig Club and my husband who served in the RAF post-war worked with several senior officers who bore the evidence of the incredible work of Archibald McIndoe and his team.

“I would say the Queen Victoria Hospital and the dedicated staff help to heal not only damaged bodies but also help patients to deal with their conditions and give them such incredible moral support and kindness.

“This hospital is the only one of its kind in southern England and patients are referred long distances to be treated.”

See http://sossqvh.co.uk