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Hospital
bed crisis - MPs call for cuts rethink Hospitals across Sussex were facing a beds crisis on Wednesday (10th January), prompting health campaigners to call for a re-think on major hospital cuts. The Royal Sussex County Hospital, the Princess Royal Hospital, East Surrey Hospital, Worthing and Eastbourne hospitals were all on red alert, with Chichester and Hastings on amber - the next category down from full capacity. Because of winter pressures, hospitals have been very busy since Christmas and Mid Sussex MP Nicholas Soames said: "this is a serious warning to the authorities not to tamper with an already over-stretched service. There is no elasticity in the system and we will use this in our campaign to save the Princess Royal" Nick Herbert, MP for Arundel & South Downs, said: "this raises real questions about where this demand is going to be accommodated if the Princess Royal's A&E is further downgraded. We know A&E admissions are rising so how on earth are we going to cope if three hospitals in West Sussex go down to one?" Unison representative at the Princess Royal, Mark Sargent said: "I think the South East Coast Strategic Health Authority is having to do a radical re-think on the hospital services it will need". Last year, Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust earmarked 109 beds for closure as part of a cost cutting drive but Grant ward at the Royal Sussex County Hospital has re-opened and the Mid Sussex Times understands Ardingly ward at the Princess Royal, Haywards Heath is opening on a temporary basis to cope with demand. Peter Coles, Chief Executive of the Trust, said: "we have been on red alert since the weekend which was exceptionally busy with around a third more emergency admissions than we were expecting. In November we produced a new escalation plan to ensure that during periods of extreme pressure everyone is working together"
"Staff across the Trust are working
extremely hard to continue providing a high quality of care to patients and
they are reporting that the escalation plan is working well" |
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