New wards planned for Eastbourne DGH to cope with ‘winter pressure’

East Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust, which runs the Kings Drive hospital, wants to put the building on a site currently occupied by workshop.

In a design and access statement submitted to Eastbourne council’s planning department, a spokesperson for the trust said, “The building will contain 105 beds within single, double, three-bed and four-bed rooms.

“It will provide much needed additional bed space for winter pressures, in addition to enabling refurbishment work to be undertaken in other areas of the hospital.

“The proposed site is an existing single storey workshop building, which has reached the end of its useful life, and a small area of car parking, located to the north of the main hospital buildings.

“Any additional staff needed in order to support the additional in-patients within these wards will be hired as required. This very much depends on whether the ward is initially used as decant from other ward to allow phased refurbishment, or immediately for winter pressures. As such, the proposal does not plan for any additional staff, only relocation from elsewhere within the hospital site.

“The hospital has already identified the need to increase it’s overall number of beds, and some staff will be relocated to this building from areas where additional beds will be created.”