Thousands protest against hospital plans

4:27am Monday 8th October 2007

Emotions are running high across Sussex over plans to downgrade hospital services.

More than 1,000 people took to the normally peaceful streets of Uckfield this weekend to add their support to a growing countywide movement to keep services local. Ben Parsons reports.

From Hastings to Chichester, from Horsham to Haywards Heath, from Eastbourne to East Grinstead, plans for changes to hospitals are provoking howls of protest.

Townspeople and country folk are facing the loss of the casualty and maternity units they have relied on for generations.

Assurances from health authorities that centralising core services in a few "centres of excellence" will improve services meet disbelief.

The quiet East Sussex town of Uckfield is not thought of as a hotbed of social tension or political activism.

But here concern over the future of hospital services is so great an estimated 1,100 people - one in 12 of the town's population - turned out on Saturday to voice their fears.

East Sussex Downs and Weald Primary Care Trust planned to close 14 of the 25 beds at Uckfield Community Hospital last month.

A principled stand by 30 GPs who pledged to forgo their fees to help save the money needed to keep the hospital's Harlands ward open meant the decision was put on ice until April.

The nearest general hospital to the town is the Princess Royal Hospital in Haywards Heath, where West Sussex PCT is proposing to downgrade the accident and emergency department and maternity unit.

Politicians joined doctors and the Bishop of Lewes on the platform at Luxford Field, Uckfield, on Saturday morning to address the marchers.

Town mayor councillor Louise Eastwood was first to address the crowds.

She said: "It makes me proud being the town mayor of Uckfield to see so many people taking part.

"The Princess Royal Hospital is being considered for downgrading. It is vital this doesn't happen."

Coun Eastwood said Uckfield will need more, not less, NHS provision in future.

She said: "This town is growing. We're going to have more housing. All those people are going to need medical treatment at some point.

"Why are they looking to downgrade? Shouldn't they be looking to build a hospital?

"Maybe they should be looking to the management side and downgrading that."

The Rt Rev Wallace Benn said: "The voice of the people needs to be heard.

"The medical case for the downgrading of our local hospitals has not been made. The financial issue is what is behind all this.

"We need to say very clearly, people's lives matter more than financial meddling."

The Bishop said lives will be put at risk if people are forced to travel further to receive care.

Buxted GP Dr Clarissa Fabre is among the doctors working free at Uckfield Community Hospital.

She told the crowd how she learnt of the proposed bed cuts not from officials at the PCT but from a tearful matron in a corridor.

She said: "The Government is going on about cleanliness in hospitals. Uckfield Hospital is immaculate, the food is good and the nurses are cheerful.

"Why break something that works really well? I am determined it will remain open. Together I'm sure we'll succeed."

Wealden's Conservative MP Charles Hendry told the crowd: "Your presence here today will send an incredibly clear message to our PCT how we value our local hospitals."

He said a decision to concentrate maternity units and accident and emergency departments in Brighton and Hastings would strain ambulance services, leave rural communities isolated and put too much pressure on the already busy Royal Sussex County and Conquest hospitals.

He said: "If you are expected to go to maternity in Brighton or A&E in Brighton there is no possible improvement in healthcare for you."

Mr Hendry said specialisms such as stroke care at the Princess Royal would be lost if the hospital was downgraded.

He said: "Surely the objective should be to bring the rest of the South East up to standard rather than destroying that which is best?"

He criticised the situation which led to doctors going unpaid at Uckfield Community Hospital.

He said: "What sort of country is it where you have to have your doctors working for free to keep your hospital open?"

Dr Jim Oliver, of the Meads surgery in Uckfield, is also working without pay at the community hospital.

Praising its standards of care, he described it as "a hospital all other hospitals should be modelled on."

Councillor Paddy Henry, of the Mid Sussex District Council Labour group, called for less to be spent on management.

He said: "The chief executive of the Strategic Health Authority should reconfigure herself on to the dole queue and her huge salary be put into hospitals and care."

Harry Ashby, a GP at Newick, has been at the forefront of protests from doctors. He said every GP in East Grinstead, Lewes, Horsham and Heathfield had signed letters petitioning the Government not to downgrade services.

He said: "These proposals are bad news and will surely affect the health of Mid Sussex residents. We cannot allow that to happen.

"Together we can win this battle to save our hospitals."

Nigel Waterson, Conservative MP for Eastbourne, described how campaigners have been battling for two years to keep consultant-led maternity services in Eastbourne.

He said NHS management was attempting to play hospital supporters off against each other by making proposals which involved a choice between services being placed in one town or another, like Eastbourne and Hastings.

He said: "We are all in this together. All we ask is any of these decisions to be made not on the basis of money or politics but community need and medical science. I don't think that's too much to ask."

Nurses who attended the rally had been told by managers at Uckfield Community Hospital not to wear their uniforms. Despite this, several did and won applause from the crowd for doing so.

Members of the crowd talked passionately about the need to keep services within reach of the town.

Caroline Scarlett, 48, of Swallow Court, Uckfield, said her 12-year-old daughter Holly had been born at the Princess Royal Hospital.

She said she knew of a heart patient who was taken to Brighton because he could not be treated at Haywards Heath and died before he arrived at hospital.

She said: "To my mind that is criminal."

Her friend Liz Hickson, 55, of Roman Way, Uckfield, said community hospital services should remain in place because it had been founded with bequests and donations.

She said: "The local services have been absolutely amazing. The care, particularly for the elderly, is second to none."

The hospital was built on land owned by farmer Arthur Hughes, who donated £1 million towards it.

Dr Christopher Petit, a retired GP from the Meads surgery, said: "The whole point of a community hospital is the doctors are able to look after their own patients."

Judith Tomsett, of Farriers Way, Uckfield, said her life had been saved by accident and emergency doctors at Princess Royal Hospital.

Helen Stockton, 41, from Mayfield, near Crowborough, said her son was sent to Maidstone in the summer because he could not be treated in a Sussex hospital. She said: "We feel very strongly services should be kept local."

Rosemary Caffyn, 71, of Pipers Field, Uckfield, said it was important people attended protests to let health authorities know how they felt.

She said: "If you don't show you care nobody will know."

Many of the demonstrators wielded placards as they marched from Uckfield Community College to the rally. One gave a simple message to the Prime Minister: "Don't shut us down, Mr Brown."

• Another protest is planned in Haywards Heath on Saturday. Organisers are hoping 10,000 people will attend.

• The Argus has prepared a letter to Health Secretary Alan Johnson protesting against service cuts. You can sign it here

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