Issue - meetings

24.1     The Committee considered a report on planned changes to the delivery of paediatric services at Eastbourne District General Hospital (EDGH). Joe Chadwick-Bell, East Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust (ESHT) Chief Executive recognised that the planned changes would be a change in working practices for some staff at EDGH, and noted that there had been media coverage and public representations made to the Committee that related to the planned changes. Joe Chadwick-Bell and Dr Matthew Clark, Consultant Paediatrician and ESHT Chief of Women and Children reiterated what was in the report, that there would be no planned activity moves from the EDGH to the Conquest Hospital in Hastings.

24.2     The Committee asked why NHS Sussex did not consider the planned changes to be a substantial variation.

24.3     Jessica Britton, NHS Sussex Executive Managing Director, East Sussex responded that NHS Sussex did not view the planned changes to be a service change as they were related to how services were organised within the hospital. NHS Sussex anticipated that the changes would increase access and hours of access for children and young people, and therefore not a substantial variation.

24.4     Cllr Alan Shuttleworth shared his view that due to a lack of detailed information having been provided, the implementation of planned changes should be paused until there had been a review and a full consultation with all stakeholders. Cllr Shuttleworth also shared his concern that an unintended consequence of the planned changes could be that more children and families have to travel to the Conquest for treatment.

24.5     Joe Chadwick-Bell recognised Cllr Shuttleworth’s request, and reiterated that the same activity for planned care or urgent care would still come to Eastbourne, and there were no changes that would lead to children going to the Conquest. She emphasised that it was an internal reorganisation of where children would be seen within the hospital. The first stage of the planned implementation was of urgent care and was due to start on 8^th January 2024, and the second stage was of elective care and would begin in February 2024. Dr Matthew Clark noted that there had been a lot of discussions with staff and other stakeholders in the lead up, and no patient safety issues had been raised despite some differences in views over the proposed model of care. Rotas were in place to implement on 8^th January and to move away from the planned date would be disruptive and operationally difficult.

24.6     The Committee asked for more detail on how planned care and urgent care pathways would change when the planned changes were implemented.

24.7     Dr Clark explained that under the current model most children who presented at the EDGH Emergency Department (ED) would be triaged and the vast majority directed to the Urgent Treatment Centre (UTC) as they did not require input from a paediatric specialist. Any children who could not be treated at the UTC would be seen in the ED by emergency physicians, and only if they could not solve  ...  view the full minutes text for item 24