The final days of the public consultation into the future of hospital services in West Sussex are upon us.

Today, Siobhan Ryan looks at the potential impact on St Richard's Hospital in Chichester.

It was one of the largest public demonstrations the city of Chichester had ever seen.

Up to 15,000 people brought the streets to a standstill last month as they marched in a mass show of support for St Richard's Hospital.

They were joined by famous faces including legendary Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards and actors Christopher Timothy and Patricia Routledge.

Their argument was simple.

St Richard's provides vital accident and emergency and consultant-led maternity services that are used by thousands of people each year.

If these services are lost under the original proposals drawn up by West Sussex Primary Care Trust (PCT) lives will be put at risk.

There has been a glimmer of hope regarding A&E as consultants have been developing proposals that could lead to facilities being kept at both Chichester and Worthing.

But the future of other facilities such as maternity are still very much at risk.

It is not just the people of Chichester who will suffer. It is also those in the surrounding towns and villages that make up the hospital's catchment area.

On a good day it can take between ten and 15 minutes to get from Bognor to Chichester. Extending the journey to Portsmouth or Worthing will be adding a whole lot more to the journey time.

Paul Wells, a father of two from Bognor, is well aware of the potential problems.

As a member of Arun District Council he has been involved in wellattended hospital demonstrations in Bognor and says the proposals as they stand must be rejected.

He said: "My father-in-law had a heart attack and had to be rushed to St Richard's, where he was stabilised before being transferred to a specialist unit.

"They did a great job on him at Chichester. I wonder whether he would have survived if he had been kept on the road and done the longer journey to the other unit.

"My two children were born at St Richard's and with the younger one it was a real race to get there in time.

Having the hospital as close as we did was absolutely vital for us."

With more than 1,000 new homes planned for Bognor next year, Mr Wells said looking at downgrading services at this time was unjustified.

He said: "Any loss of services is going to have a major impact at a time when so much housing is being planned, not just in Bognor but across West Sussex. We need to be focusing on getting the infrastructure sorted.

The roads in this part of the county are among the worst areas in Sussex when it comes to congestion. The A27, A29 and A259 are constantly busy.

"I would urge people to get their views in to the PCT before the deadline ends so they are aware of exactly what people think." Abigail Rowe, from the Support St Richard's Campaign, is also calling on people to make sure they keep fighting.

She said: "We are still extremely concerned about the future of consultant- led maternity and inpatient children's services at St Richard's and we need to keep the pressure on.

"When it comes down to it, nobody wants to have to travel a long way to give birth and nobody wants to take a sick child longer distances for treatment.

"West Sussex is a very large county with a lot of rural locations. We need to have those facilities available.

"We have had phenomenal support during our campaign and we are asking people now, if they haven't already done so, to send in their response to the PCT in good time."

St Richard's, despite a well catalogued problem with its finances, does have a good reputation when it comes to efficiency.

For the past seven years it has been one of only 40 hospitals singled out by the medical performance consultancy CHKS as the best-run in the country.

The hospital has also run a successful fund-raising campaign for an MRI scanner and is close to reaching a £3 million target for a dedicated daycare centre for cancer patients.

As well as the impact on patients, business leaders have also warned that companies will be less eager to move into an area if the local hospital does not provide a full range of services.

The area already has some problems attracting businesses because of the high cost of property - and the lack of something as basic as an A&E department will not help.

Chichester District Council and Arun District Council have both rejected the original three proposals put forward by the PCT and are calling for there to be at least two major general hospitals in the county instead of the planned single one.

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See The Argus on Thursday Nov 8 for a look at how Brighton will be affected.