Campaigners in Sussex yesterday said they will continue their fight to keep fully functioning district general hospitals in both Eastbourne and Hastings.
This followed the recommendation by East Sussex Downs and Weald and Hastings and Rother Primary Care Trusts (PCTs) chief executive Nick Yeo that a single consultant-led maternity unit should be based in Hastings, with Eastbourne having just midwife care.
Yeo proposed that a special care baby unit and inpatient gynaecology services would also be sited in Hastings, with Eastbourne having a midwife-led birthing centre similar to an existing one in Crowborough.
The plan will be considered at a board meeting of two PCTs next Thursday.
Save Eastbourne DGH said: ‘Eastbourne Maternity to be downgraded!
‘That’s what Nick Yeo who lives in Surrey said on Thursday.
‘This non-local man, will recommend the PCT Board to single-site Maternity at Hastings Conquest Hospital.
‘The Board meeting takes place at Uckfield Civic Centre, Weald Hall, Uckfield, next Thursday, 20th December (just before Christmas!), at 9.30am.
‘Please be reminded that Nick Yeo does NOT live in the area, neither does any of his executive directors.
‘We are hoping and praying that the non-executives and other directors will NOT follow Nick Yeo’s recommendation and they will vote with the voice of the general public, the unanimous voice of our local GPs and East Sussex MPs.
Vincent Argent, Consultant Obstetrician/Gynaecologist responded: ‘With the greatest of respect, none of these decision makers have been faced with a woman bleeding profusely or a baby not breathing in front of them. I have!
‘It is stupid, crass and ignorant to suggest that time is unimportant.’
He warned that if the maternity is allowed to close ‘Paediatrics and A & E may follow and then cardiology and other services.’
He concluded that ‘only the local people and their political and medical (GPs) representatives have any chance of turning this around.’
Save Eastbourne DGH campaigner Liz Walker said ‘overwhelming evidence’ had been presented that having one consultant-led unit would be ‘dangerous for women and babies’.
Condemning the plans as ‘disgraceful’ Hastings campaigner Margaret Williams said: ‘I can’t live with my conscience if I don’t carry on the fight with Eastbourne. Mothers or babies will die without full maternity services at both hospitals.’
l Over 2,000 people took to the streets of Eastbourne again on November 17, with just under half of them staying for a rally at the Town Hall.