Friends at three hospitals link up over threat to patient services

The decision was taken after East Sussex Hospitals NHS Trust chief executive Kim Hodgson outlined the options emerging from the current regional review.

Sussex and Surrey Strategic Health Authority is seeking to reduce a 100m deficit. Individual health trusts are seeking to overcome their own deficits while competing both for available resources and for the patient numbers needed to sustain their operations.

The chief executive made it clear that services at Eastbourne DGH are under threat because Brighton could take patients just as those at the Conquest are under threat because of the planned new hospital at Pembury in Kent.

Monday's meeting at Eastbourne District General Hospital was called by Peter Nash, chairman of the Eastbourne League of Friends who was accompanied by league president Ann Caffyn and colleagues Vanessa Saunders and Pat Fursden.

Conquest league chairman John Baker and president, Hastings and Rye MP Michael Foster, were accompanied by Margaret Williams.

Bexhill was represented by chairman Peter Mitchell Davis, president John Dowling and committee members Dr Helen Plumpton and Stuart Earl.

Kim Hodgson said that although East Sussex Hospitals NHS Trust needed to clear a 27m deficit she believed it was on course to do so by the end of the year.

The strategic authority has brought in consultants to carry out the review. Out of the possibilities for change Kim Hodgson believes the "fixed points" will be the Brighton, Pembury and William Harvey (Ashford) hospitals.

She has already held meetings with staff at Eastbourne and Hastings to explain the review.

Locally, the future of the accident and emergency services together with gynaecology and obstetrics at either Eastbourne or Hastings is at risk. Public petitions have been started in both towns.

She told Monday's meeting: "It's not the trust's decision at the end of the day. We have been informed that the status quo is not going to be acceptable."

She warned that Primary Care Trust proposals for local services in primary care centres could draw patients away from the Conquest, threatening its financial viability.

The options for change are likely to be announced next month with public consultation in September.

Officers from the three leagues plan to meet again in September to discuss what action they might take.

Debate revealed that each league recognises the common threat to local services. Each is deeply aware that public support for its work is a reflection of the quality of those local services.

Stuart Earl summed-up the feelings of the representatives of all three leagues: "We each care for the people in our community. They come first. Where possible, we will work together."