A Letter to Health Secretary, Alan Johnson MP
on behalf of the Senior Forum members of East Sussex

Members of the EAST SUSSEX SENIORS’ ASSOCIATION

12^th November 2007

The Rt Hon Alan Johnson PC MP
Secretary of State for Health
House of Commons
Westminster
London W1A 1AA

Dear Secretary of State

NHS Fit for the future – Maternity and allied services: East Sussex Hospital

I am writing to you on behalf of the two and half thousand Senior Forum Members of East Sussex whose healthcare is delivered by East Sussex Hospitals Trust. You may ask yourself why Seniors have an interest in maternity matters, but of course I need not remind you I am sure that Seniors are parents, grandparents and in some cases great grandparents, furthermore we are concerned for the healthcare of all our citizens, young and old.

We have attended consultations galore, focus groups, seminars, Health Overview Scrutiny meetings, but it appears that no-one from the PCT Trusts wants to know of our concerns;  yes they listen politely but continue to propose plans which will replace a consultant led maternity service with a midwife led unit. Over 12,000 people have joined marches, some 90,000 signed letters of protest and the overwhelming number of people attending consultation meetings are opposed to the Trust plans.

The General Practitioner local Medical Committee feel that the plans to remove a consultant-led unit at either Hastings or Eastbourne to be reckless and untested. We have two General Hospitals, The District General at Eastbourne and the Conquest at Hastings.  The distance between the two units is 20.5 miles (AA verified who suggest a journey time of 31 -35 minutes).  However each town has rural areas and the distance from the home of the expectant mother to the nearest hospital can be as much as 13 – 15 miles.  If one consultant-led unit closes, an expectant mother could face a journey of up to 35 miles with travelling time well in excess of the 30 minutes optimum time as suggested by the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists.  The highway between the two hospitals is 99.75% single carriageway and congested, there being only 0.25 miles of dual carriageway and because of reckless driving, this is restricted to 40mph. 

Attention should be drawn to other hospitals in East, Mid and West Sussex, which are also under threat, and consultations are incomplete. Any decisions on these hospitals may have a knock-on effect on all citizens of Sussex, whether young or old. Hospitals in the consultations include Princess Royal, Haywards Heath, Royal Sussex County & Brighton General, Victoria in Lewes, Chichester, Worthing, and Southlands).

To date we have no risk assessment from the Trust should they intend to downgrade one unit.

We have opinions from a local Fellow of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, and more recently our local Member of Parliament, Michael Foster accompanied by campaigners attended the Royal College.  At this meeting, the members of the Royal College were positive and expressed their concerns:

(1) Road infrastructure – there are no plans to update this. (The Ridge road in Hastings can be really dangerous in the winter, fog, ice etc. Those from the west of the county have to go via Hailsham which puts extra miles and time on the journey. Both routes have to negotiate Battle which can also slow vehicles down.)  

(2) The need to provide prompt safe care to expectant mothers, particularly in Post pregnancy where there is need for medical intervention. Please note the attached extract from local newspaper of 26^th October 2007. It was surprising that this could be necessary for 25% to 30% of the first deliveries 10 % to 15% of mums with two or more children. This is not what the Trust portrayed in their presentation.

May I suggest a possible scenario: let us suppose a mum to be whilst having a quite unremarkable pregnancy and in the care of a domiciliary midwife in say Camber (Hastings), or Newhaven or Uckfield (Eastbourne) has unexpected complications at delivery, and there is only one consultant-led unit. The journey mileage would increase to 32 – 35 miles and the journey time could increase to 50 minutes to 1 hour. We fear that this scenario could lead to neo-natal or maternity deaths. This must not be allowed to happen.

The Royal College of Midwives have reported an increase in the birth-rate: furthermore they report an increase in complex births due in part to young women delaying the starting of families for careers or for financial reasons.

To date we do not appear to have been able to make our concerns known to the Trust.

However, you are the leader of the NHS and not an unelected Trust Strategic Health Authority and we feel that it is incumbent on you to consider our concerns.

In 1949 The Clem Attlee Government, with great vision and courage gave us the NHS. This move was envied by the governments of many countries, but few have so far been able to equal its success.

May we refer you to the much heralded Patient Choice?  Do you really believe that an expectant mother in the throes of a birthing complication would choose to travel up to 35 miles in the back of a speeding ambulance on a stretch of the most congested roads in the country, with possibly a paramedic in attendance?

May I request that the Officer in your department who carries out pre-scrutiny of letters realises that this letter is of great concern and worthy of the Secretary of State’s attention and this is our plea.  Whilst we acknowledge that Ministers are very busy people, we plead our cause on behalf of all those mums looking forward to the safe and memorable event of giving birth to a child, an event which should be safe and caring, resulting in a good outcome. 

Yours sincerely

John Appleyard
Chair, East Sussex Seniors’ Association

NB I am indebted to Fred Cullen M.B.E, Chair of the Hastings & St Leonards Seniors’ Forum, Health and Social Care Special Interest Group, who composed this letter with some additional inserts from other member forums..

cc All E Sussex MPs
     Nick Yeo PCT Chief Executive
     John Barnes, Chairman, PCT
     Charles Everett, PCT
     League of Friends
     All ESSA Forum Chairs

A copy of this letter was sent to all East Sussex MPs as noted above. These are the replies received as of 22/11/07:

Norman Baker MP Liberal Democrat Lewes	“Thank you for your communication of the 12/ 11 /07 which will receive attention.”
Gregory Barker MP Conservative Bexhill & Battle	“Thank you very much for your letter dated 12th November 2007 regarding our local Maternity Services. You raised some very important points which as a fellow campaigner for our local maternity units I fully endorse. 1 see that you have already sent this letter to the Secretary of State but I would be very interested to have sight of his reply.”
Charles Hendry MP Conservative Wealden	“Thank you for sending me a copy of your letter of 12 November to Alan Johnson, the Secretary of State for Health. 1 have now written myself to Mr Johnson both to ensure that he is aware of my support and that your representations are considered at ministerial level. I will let you know what response I receive in due course.”

Thank you to Fred Cullen for making this material available.