NHS Trust declare ‘business continuity incident’ at Eastbourne hospital
A ‘business continuity incident’ has been declared at Eastbourne District General Hospital by the East Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust.
The trust said that the incident had been declared on Wednesday, January, 14, ‘in light of extreme and sustained operational pressures both in our emergency departments and across the wards’.
The trust added the declaration had also been put into place at the hospital to ‘ensure the safety and continuity of our services’ and that it would review the situation at Conquest Hospital in Hastings throughout the day.
A spokesperson for the East Sussex Healthcare Trust added: “The business continuity framework exists to ensure that we can monitor and maintain resilience in times of extreme pressure, ensuring that critical services remain operational. We call an incident when the pressure on our services threatens our ability to deliver them safely and we must take additional measures.”
“The combination of high numbers of acutely unwell patients needing to be admitted and many patients with winter illnesses and respiratory viruses, is putting our hospitals under intense pressure.
“Our focus, as always, remains on the delivery of high-quality care to our patients. We are doing everything we can to ensure the safety and continuity of our services, and we have robust business continuity plans in place to help us navigate situations like this effectively.
"Please support us by only attending our emergency departments for serious or life-threatening emergencies. Please share our posts on social media to help us let as many people know as possible that they should consider other health services, such as your GP, pharmacies or NHS 111.
"This helps ensure that our hospitals can care for those who need them most.”