STRUCTURE: East Sussex Healthcare Trust’s board has agreed recommendations that will see three key service areas reconfigured between its two main hospital sites.
On 28 September, the trust began a three month consultation on options to reconfigure stroke, emergency and higher risk general surgery and emergency and higher risk orthopaedic surgery.
The trust subsequently received widespread public criticism of its “Shaping our Future” strategy from groups wanting to maintain the full range of services at both hospitals.
However, the trust announced last week that its board had agreed that stroke services should be centralised on the Eastbourne District General Hospital site.
Meanwhile, emergency and higher risk planned general surgery, and emergency and higher risk planned orthopaedics would be located at the Conquest Hospital site in Hastings.
The recommendations will be considered, along with a recommendation from clinical commissioning groups, by the NHS Sussex board at its meeting on 23 November.
If approved by the primary care trust cluster, plans will be developed to introduce the changes in stages with completion “envisaged” by the end of 2013.
Trust chief executive Darren Grayson said: “Local people are quite rightly passionate about their hospitals and so are we.
“We firmly believe we have made the right recommendations for the future of healthcare in East Sussex.”
Source
Source date
15 November 2012
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