NHS - fears babies will die

SAVE the DGH campaigners have repeated their view that mothers and babies will die if services are cut at the hospital.

A number of people from the campaign group spoke at the meeting on Tuesday and all criticised the potential changes outlined by NHS Trust chief executive Nick Yeo.

Save the DGH campaigner Liz Walke said, "We want consultant-led obstetrics wards open 24/7 in both Eastbourne and Hastings.

"We want an in-patient paediatrics 24/7 and at least 15 each (beds on the children's wards at both sites), we need to keep acute medical admissions and acute surgical admissions, 24/7, all day every day.

"We need to keep psychiatric admissions and crisis intervention teams and make sure admissions are 24/7, and we want accident and trauma 24/7.

"It's all very well to talk about all these other services but people are going to lose their lives, we need to start with core services.

"Please consider your consultation very carefully because lives will be lost if emergency services are closed.

"We have very few clinicians who agree with the proposals being put forward, and I know nearly all of the nurses and midwives are also against it.

"We are going to see mothers and babies dying."

Speaking after the meeting, Monica Corrina-Kavakli described the meeting as a 'total farce'.

She said, "If last night's meeting is to be an example of the 'real' consultation process, then it is as we feared, a total farce.

"The whole approach is designed and contrived to confuse Joe Public, with NHS jargon and misinterpretion of any responses or opinions that they receive.

"Emphasis (at the meeting] was continuously put on medical progress within areas such as cancer, diabetes and other specialist treatments.

"(That is] totally irrelevant to the reasons we were all there. The PCT seems to have a real problem getting to grips with the issue of core services '“ services we all deserve to have on our doorstep and which we are all trying to protect.

"I left there realising what a fight we have on our hands, a fight which we will persist with to the end."