Our MP, Stephen Lloyd has written to us, along with many other Eastbourne residents with this update on the DGH situation. While we don't usually use the Trades Council website as a mouthpiece for local politicians, the attacks on the DGH are immediate, and there is important information in the letter that our members need to know. The Trades Council has invited the Save the DGH campaign to our next meeting to advise us on how trade unionists in Eastbourne can support the campaign- more details to follow.
I would like to update you on what is happening with maternity and
associated services at the DGH.After the announcement by East Sussex Healthcare Trust that they intended to downgrade our maternity and paediatrics due to safety concerns, I rushed back from my father’s funeral in Spain to ensure I was able to make the Emergency General Meeting in Bexhill.
I put a number of questions to the Trust’s Board, but I have to say though, I thought the meeting was a complete sham! On Wednesday last week staff at the DGH were told the Special Care Baby Unit was closing and paediatrics was having its opening hours slashed. Yet at the meeting 2 days later they discussed a number of options, completely straight faced as if they were all still on the table. It was surreal and even led to some laughter in disbelief at what we were hearing.
I am bitterly disappointed we are in this position, however I have a commitment from ESHT that this move will be temporary and the Chair publicly assured me that consultant-led maternity would be returning within 18 months. Frankly, I would have preferred it to have been much sooner and will continue to press for this and hold the Chair to his word.
What is shockingly disappointing though, is that I know many of you will remember the battle from 5 years ago, when we saw off an attempt by our local NHS to downgrade maternity. The Independent Reconfiguration Panel (IRP) - the independent expert on NHS service change which advises the Secretary of State for Health on contested proposals for health service reconfigurations - rejected the plans on safety grounds. The IRP found women’s access to, and choice of, services at the DGH would be seriously compromised, and the journey from Eastbourne to the Conquest Hospital 'posed a risk of incidents for women, especially during unexpected transfers'. This situation has not changed!
Furthermore, a recent report by the National Clinical Advisory Team into maternity services in East Sussex found 36% of first time mums and 20% of mums having their second or subsequent baby need to be referred to a consultant at some point during labour. The fact that there were approximately 2,000 births in Eastbourne last year will mean a number of worrying dashes to the Conquest for expectant mums to the consultant-led service. The proposed downgrade will leave midwife-led maternity at the DGH, which is exactly what we fought last time. I don’t wish to cause unnecessary alarm, but this is a potentially awful and dangerous situation we find ourselves in.
This week I have written to the Prime Minister and the IRP, as well as submitting a number of Freedom of Information requests to the local NHS. I have very real concerns that the recommendations the IRP published in their report in 2008, to improve and ensure the safety, sustainability and quality of maternity services, were not properly implemented. I am determined to get to the bottom of this and ensure those people who have failed our town are held to account.
In the meantime I would ask that any of you receiving this who work at the Trust, particularly in the departments affected, please keep me updated on any developments, issues or observations about the way in which the hospital is being run and how the current changes are being introduced.
I am really sorry to have to bring you this update. Eastbourne is a wonderful town and in so many areas we really are bucking the economic trend, but when it comes to the DGH and our community NHS services, I believe we are being let down by the ESHT management team. Please rest assured that I and the cross-party ‘Save the DGH’ Campaign Group are determined to do all that we can on behalf of Eastbourne DGH, its staff and all its patients who just seek, what we all do – a fully functioning district general hospital to serve the fastest growing town in Sussex.
Many thanks,
STEPHEN LLOYD MP
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