County councillors urge PCT to think again

And they are pressing the county's Primary Care Trust to think again before lives are lost.

Members of the county council's South Chichester local committee lined up to deplore the proposals, which would lead to the hospital losing key services.

Following their meeting, committee chairman Cllr Mike Hall has now written to the trust.

"As a local general hospital, St Richard's will have no consultant-led maternity unit and no in-patient paediatrics. Mothers and children will have to travel to Worthing and Portsmouth for care," he said.

"From Selsey, for example, it is 26 miles to Portsmouth and 31 miles to Worthing. From Worthing to the full hospital facilities in Brighton, it is only 14 miles.

"Survival will drop if journey times are increased. Surely the dead-on-arrival rate will rise if this decision is implemented."

Cllr Hall said Chichester's growing population had increasing health needs.

"Additionally, Chichester College and the University of Chichester have 21,900 students between them, of whom only 4,300 originate from the Chichester area," he added.

"Furthermore, the catchment area for St Richard's is 441 square miles, compared to 188 square miles for Worthing."

Cllr Hall also said the PCT was wrong not to take seasonal trends into consideration.

"There are an estimated six million visitors per year to the St Richard's catchment area, with more visitors going to West Wittering beach than to Windsor Castle," he declared.

"Selsey's population increases from 11,000 to more than 30,000 in the summer months.

"Many of the visitors are children and they will not be able to receive A&E treatment in Chichester. They will have to travel to Worthing or Portsmouth when the roads are clogged up in the summer months.

"The trust needs to understand what the roads on the Manhood peninsula and on the A27 are like in the summer months."

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