Save Maternity at Eastbourne DGH

[cathcart]

Is anyone on mn involved in the recent campaigns? I recently had dd at edgh and would like to know if there is any way I can support this cause, as I really don't relish the idea of going all the way to hastings to have next lo!

bump

bump again

bumpety bump! no-one?

Hi,
I am the opposite - although I live near to Eastbourne, I had both my children in Hastings. I too, am disgusted at this proposal. There have been marches and there are online petitions that you can sign although I have had trouble locating them. If you find them I would love to know!

thanks desperate, i will look into the online petition and update you if I find it

can't believe they are considering doing this.
if you can find a petition I will forward it to people I know in that area

Hiya I've found the online petition. It is \link{http://www.savethedgh.org.uk/here.
I will start a new thread on it. Thanks!

sorry \link{http://www.savethedgh.org.uk\here

I can't bloody do the link ! The web address is save the dgh.org.uk. Get signing!

It won't make any difference. Maidstone has just lost a battle to keep maternity services here and they, plus paediatrics and other assorted services, including our excellent A&E, are all being shipped off to Tunbridge Wells.

There have been marches, attended by thousands, petitions, campaigns, etc. All to no avail. The Trust has made its mind up, despite opposition by the vast majority of consultants here, and there is nothing we can do about it.

Makes a complete mockery of the "consultation" process. It's just lip service with no chance of influencing the outcome.

link to petition

Thats terrible Freckle, it's beyond a joke! Maidstone is miles from T. Wells!
Thanks for that PA, I'm such a dummy .

you're not cathcart, just very easy to get a \ the wrong way round (it's why my due in April thread said i should be called thePA

Not only is it miles, the roads in between are absolutely terrible. Maidstone is right by the M20 and M2 and there have been a spate of horrific accidents there with fatalities. How many more fatalities when the ambulances have to get to TW instead of Maidstone which is literally a 2 minute drive from the motorway?

Can you imagine travelling over very poor roads in labour??

At the East Sussex Hospitals Trust Board Meeting on Wednesday (28th March), Kim Hodgson, Chief Executive which runs both Eastbourne District General Hospital (DGH) and the Conquest Hospital at Hastings, finally admitted that a consultant-led Maternity Unit could only remain at Eastbourne DGH after 1st August 2007, if the PCT gave the Hospitals Trust more money to do so!! Basically, the decision has been made and somehow we were going to be fooled into thinking it was as a result of consultation!!! This is truly OUTRAGEOUS!!!! It is now clear a temporary closure is planned from 1st August 2007, which will then be made permanent.

We have produced our own Option 5 Saving Lives, which we submitted to the PCT (Primary Care Trust), who should have included our Option (ie. Option 5) in with their documentation. They have not done this despite numerous requests!!

So we, as a Campaign Group, have decided to protest and attend in large numbers (if possible) at the 'Fit for the Future' Public Consultation Meeting next Tuesday (3rd April), at the Gold Room, Winter Garden, Eastbourne, from 6.30pm to protest then go into the meeting which starts at 7.00pm and is due to finish at 9.00pm.

We really need yours (and many others) support. We plan to be at the Winter Garden from 6.30pm next Tuesday. Please join us, bringing with you as many other people as possible, to protest about this. (Bring posters, plackards etc etc, please). This is really UNACCEPTABLE - Mums, Mums to be and babies lives really are at stake!

Option 5 is the only option which secures Consultant-led Maternity Units at both Eastbourne and Hastings hospitals and retains the Birthing Unit at Crowborough. This is the only safe option!

If we lose Maternity, Special Care Baby Unit will be next, then Paediatrics, then Anaesthetics, then surgical A & E etc. Consultants, GP?s, nurses, midwives will be harder to recruit. Local jobs lost (family/ friends suffer), not to mention the effect on Tourism, businesses will leave the town etc etc.

Please support us on Tuesday where we hope to HAVE OUR SAY and you can have YOURS in the meeting!

Lastly, please can I ask you to forward this email to all your local contacts in your address book.

Many thanks and best wishes

Liz

www.savethedgh.org.uk

is wha i have received

Has it closed already? I can't believe what is going on! No wonder the community mw's are so mad keen on encouraging homebirths now. I currently only live a 5 minute drive from my hosp but all my mw went on about was having a hb. If I had have done I would have ended up having to go to hosp anyway to get stitched up. I'm sure this would be the case for so many home births, and thats only a minor thing, what about the life threatening complicatuons? I'm so mad the more I think about it! What about people that don't have cars? its over £20 to get from eastbourne to hastings in a taxi and I'm sure it's much more than that from maidstone to t.wells!

absolutely appalling

'has it closed already?' i mean maidstone.

Thanks very much Liz - I will be at the Winter Gardens on Tuesday.

No. I think the whole issue has come about because the trust has put forward a proposal to the govt. for an all-singing, all-dancing brand new hospital at TW. I suspect they were only able to get the funding on the basis that it was going to have "centres of excellence" in various department, including obstetrics, etc. In order to provide a centre of excellence, they have to have a certain number of patients passing through, so they are swiping them from Maidstone.

Maidstone is the county town of Kent, it is near to 2 major motorways and has a hugely increasing population (thousands of new houses being built). So some moron, in order to secure funding for a new hospital, decides to transfer major departments from our hospital to a town which is a 40-45 minute drive away on a good day, over truly dreadful roads.

They tried to calm the outrage by offering a midwife-led unit, but then admitted that it would only cater for about 300 women (no first-time mums, only women who have had trouble-free pregnancies admitted) when Maidstone's birth rate is about 3000 per annum.

Sorry, I should add that they haven't even started building the new hospital yet, so this will probably happen in a few years' time. However, services are already beginning to be transferred to the old decrepit hospital in TW.

Maidstone will not close entirely. It will retain a specialist cancer unit and, I believe, orthopaedics.

Will sign petition and be at the Winter Gardens on Tuesday. We have to try and do something.

bumping

Will also be at Winter Gardens on Tuesday. I had my ds and dd at Eastbourne DGH and think it is absolutely appalling what is being proposed.

You know, petitions like this can work - though it does depend on the reasons for the closure. About four years ago NHS Highland tried to close the Belford Hospital in Fort William, including A&E, and transferring all the work to Raigmore at Inverness. Bear in mind that the Belford is at the foot of Ben Nevis and a lot of people fall off it; plus Fort William is trying to promote itself as the Outdoor Capital of Europe. Add to that that people like me would have to travel over 100 miles to my nearest hospital, so giving birth would have had to be a homebirth or "come in and we'll induce you". And that's even before you consider that just about every heart attack/stroke would automatically be fatal because of the time it would take to get people to hospital. Absolutely ridiculous. A public meeting was held to discuss the issue and 4000 people turned up (and just think how small and widely spread the population is up here - some people travelled for days from the islands to be there!) - they had to set up loudspeakers in the carpark! The ferocity of the reaction took them by surprise and (thank God) they backed down. It would have been like going back to the dark ages.

Good luck with the Eastbourne campaign - I will sign the petition if I can!

Miaou - thanks so much for your positive story! I'm so glad you had this success with your campaign!