“This is really bad news if you live in places like Rye or Winchelsea” says Barry Upton, the organiser of a petition against changes to cardiac services at the Conquest Hospital in Hastings. Plans are being put in place to close the James Ward, a sixteen bed coronary care unit with specialist cardiac services moving to Eastbourne.
The petition has now been signed by almost nine thousand people. Hospital bosses say the changes will still mean the vast majority of patients needing cardiac care are treated in Hastings.
Barry Upton is not convinced. “Someone will die in an ambulance on the way to Eastbourne. You know how bad the traffic is through Bexhill. Every second counts for people with heart conditions. They are trying to push it through saying it will benefit local people but how can it? I’m a heart patient but this isn’t about me, it’s about making sure this move doesn’t happen.”
The specialist ward closure means heart patients will now be seen on general wards at Hastings, with all emergency and routine heart surgery taking place at Eastbourne District General Hospital (DGH).
The proposals for cardiology across East Sussex are several years old but are only just being implemented. They were approved in 2022 by East Sussex County Council Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee and NHS Sussex after public consultation and include the creation of cardiac response teams working with the ambulance service.
Barry Upton says the changes are not fair to people living in the east of the county like Peasmarsh or Camber. “If you’re being treated in Eastbourne that’s a very long way to go, not just for patients but for their families too. It saves almost no money and it feels like everything is slowly being moved to Eastbourne at the expense of Conquest.”
Last week Jayne Black, the chief executive officer of East Sussex NHS Trust, wrote to hospital staff reassuring them about the safety of the changes which are likely to be implemented this autumn.
A spokesperson for the trust said the plans will still mean that more than nine out of ten patients living in Hastings who need cardiac care will receive most or all of that care at the Conquest hospital. “Patients being cared for in the Conquest will still be able to access heart failure services, cardiac-monitored beds, non-invasive diagnostics (including echocardiograms), cardiac rehabilitation and outpatient care at that hospital as they always have. The centralising of highly specialist interventional cardiology at Eastbourne DGH is likely to impact only around three percent of patients who receive cardiac care. With this complex inpatient work moving from the Conquest, these beds will no longer be required by the cardiology team.”
The plans were also described by the trust as strengthening emergency department cardiac care with the creation of the cardiac response teams. “These teams provide immediate specialist cardiac assessment and treatment to patients ensuring faster diagnosis and a shorter length of stay in hospital. The team at the Conquest hospital is already seeing patients.”
You can read more about the petition here.
Image Credits: Geograph https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Conquest_Hospital_St_Leonards_East_Sussex_-_geograph.org.uk_-_154875.jpg CC https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/.
Yet another attack on Conquest Hospital. With more and more departments being moved to Eastbourne, soon it will be A & E only.
During Covid the Infusion Unit was moved to Eastbourne “for safety reasons”. It was supposed to be temporary but never came back. Patients still have to find their own way to Eastbourne General (approximately 1 hour away) or use the unreliable Hospital Transport Service when they are at their lowest ebb.
What is the point of a hospital with so few services.
My partner, Rachel Baker was a frequent attendee at the Conquest for appointments at Cardiology, as well as for being fitted with a heartbeat recorder on numerous occasions. She also had to stay in the ward for treatment and I hope this will all still be available for patients from the Rye area, when any changes are made, as Eastbourne is quite a distance to travel for those same regular treatments. Mike Wade.