Bid to delay Littlehampton Hospital decision ends in failure

CAMPAIGNERS failed in an 11th-hour bid to have the crunch decision on the future of Littlehampton Hospital delayed.

Hours before the board of NHS Sussex was due to vote on a recommendation not to rebuild the hospital, the town’s MP Nick Gibb and Arun District Council leader Gill Brown met health minister Simon Burns on Monday night (march 26), in a last-ditch attempt to stop the axe falling.

But their efforts were to no avail, as NHS Sussex officials also attending the meeting rejected the plea.

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And on Tuesday afternoon the NHS Sussex Board formally approved the recommendation by a group of GPs in the coastal West Sussex area, not to proceed with the hospital rebuilding. However, the campaigners have vowed that this is not the end of their fight.

Mrs Brown said: “I totally refute the comments by NHS Sussex that Littlehampton is a healthy place and does not need a community hospital. We have some of the worst areas of deprivation in the county, with huge and unacceptable variations in life expectancy.

“The NHS says people are better off being treated in their own homes but there is no clarity at all about where clinical services and therapeutic treatments would be located in GP services across the town.

“I can’t understand the logic in talking about different services in different surgeries scattered across the town. How does that make it better for the patient, or the NHS for that matter?

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“I do not believe that the evidence gathering that has led to this recommendation has truly taken into account the needs of local people or the projected population growth.”

Mrs Brown and Mr Gibb have asked for an urgent meeting with the Clinical Commissioning Group, which made the recommendation.

Both said they will continue the fight for better health care facilities for Littlehampton.

Mr Gibb said: “The decision of NHS Sussex not to proceed with the promised rebuilding of a hospital in Littlehampton is wrong and against the wishes and the best interests of the people of Littlehampton.

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“I asked NHS Sussex to postpone its decision until it had carried out a more rigorous analysis of the health care needs of Littlehampton and Arun district. This was refused.

“It’s not over, the fight goes on until the correct decision is made to rebuild the hospital which served our town well since the early 20th century.”