MP TAKES DGH FIGHT TO COMMONS

Eastbourne MP Nigel Waterson criticised the proposal to close emergency maternity and paediatrics at the hospital and said that a previous study has shown the services should be maintained at both the DGH and at the Conquest in Hastings.

He also said mothers-to-be will not receive the service they are entitled to '” unless they travel from Eastbourne to Hastings in a helicopter.

Mr Waterson also said the changes were entirely driven by the need to save money.

He said, "As recently as August 2004, a detailed clinical review carried out by the trust concluded that maternity facilities should remain on both sites '” Eastbourne and Hastings.

"What has changed since then, in barely two years? The road communications are just as bad: 21 miles of poor roads between Eastbourne and Hastings.

"The population continues to rise with a lot of new house building '”much of it imposed by Labour Ministers '” and the requirements of the population in terms of maternity and other needs have increased.

"So what has changed? All that seems to have changed is the financial envelope.

"If one of those maternity units were to close, would it really be safe for mothers and babies? A senior consultant gynaecologist and obstetrician who has recently left East Sussex NHS Hospitals Trust has said in public that he thinks lives would be at risk as a result.

"I understand that the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists has a gold standard of half an hour between deciding to perform a Caesarean operation and actually performing it.

"There is no way, short of using a helicopter, to get from one of those sites to the other, admit a patient and carry out an operation in half an hour."

He also criticised the planned public consultation and suggested the Primary Care Trust, which will take the final decisions about the future of services at the hospital, has already ruled out some of the possible scenarios for the future of the DGH.

Mr Waterson said, "What earthly point is there in telling people that there will be public consultation when one of the most important options has apparently been closed off?

"There are also some so-called temporary closures in the offing '”particularly for paediatrics.

"One thing we know about the NHS is that temporary closures have a habit of becoming permanent and part of the status quo.

"I have some real concerns, which I hope that the Minister will take seriously, about the way that this process is operating.

"He has talked about political issues, but it would be fundamentally anti-democratic and bad for the whole system if my constituents felt that they were being invited to take part in a public consultation that may not now start until the end of January when some of the options have already been removed from the table."