BEXHILL Hospital and its Irvine Unit provide "pivotal" local services and their future is assured, the Chairman of East Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust has the League's 60^th anniversary annual meeting. Bexhillian Stuart Welling was guest speaker at the annual meeting of the League of Friends of Bexhill  Hospital on Wednesday, April18th. Mr Welling had just held the first of planned six-monthly liaison meetings with the chairmen of leagues of friends in the Trust's area. He said he was committed to partnership working with the leagues. He congratulated the Bexhill league on its 60^th anniversary and thanked members for the tremendous support they give in providing medical equipment for Bexhill hospital and for the Conquest, the town's nearest acute hospital. In the presence of Town Mayor Cllr Stuart Wood and in response to the League's request for a statement on the Trust's future plans, he said: "Bexhill Hospital is an integral part of our services and there is no doubt at all, in my view, about the long-term future of the hospital." The Trust was confronting "very challenging issues." Although its predecessor, East Sussex Hospitals NHS Trust, had done a good job, there had been a failure to look ahead to see where it would be in ten years. There had not been the investment in doctors, nurses and clinical staff and there would be difficult decisions to make in the next 12 months  The priority now was to ensure that healthcare and clinical outcomes were of the highest standard.
"We are committed to maintaining both the Conquest and Eastbourne District Hospitals but we are looking at these as one hospital on two sites. "They are not big enough and they do not serve a big enough population to provide everything for everybody all the time. "Accident and emergency services will continue. Ninety five per cent of the people who go through the doors of those hospitals are there for emergency medicine. That will continue. "Bexhill Hospital will be pivotal in contributing to those services. "Some services will require reconfiguration - providing services in different places."
There would be full consultation once plans had been prepared. Asked to explain how NHS reform would affect the local area, Mr Welling said that despite the public concern, on the whole, what the Government sought was what everyone wanted.
Reform involved dismantling some bureaucratic structures.  It was creating GP-led commissioning groups; involving GPs in decision-making about what they wanted to buy on behalf of patients. By April 2014 all hospital and healthcare delivery organisations would have to become Foundation Trusts. These would give local people more "say" about the way decisions were made. It would mean services changing across the country.  He said the East Sussex Trust would never compromise on patient care or patient safety.  He had initiated his meetings with the chairmen of local leagues of friends. Each league had been allocated an executive director as liaison officer; in Bexhill's case Trust finance director David Meikle. "This is not sugar-coating but wanting to genuinely forge partnerships with the leagues. I know many leagues feel it was a bit 'one-way traffic' but you really have the engagement of the Trust and the board to put that right." He thanked league supporters for their "tireless efforts" to support Bexhill Hospital and the Conquest. The Town Mayor told members: "Congratulations on your 60^th .Thank you all for what you have done for the hospital and for the Irvine Unit and for the equipment that you have bought for here and for the Conquest." A new display board was on show at the meeting, with pictures taken at the presentation of league-donated equipment at the hospitals.
*Pictured: The Town Mayor, Premises Liaison Manager Ann Lloyd, League Vice-President Peter Mitchell-David and Trust Chairman Stuart Welling admire the new publicity board.

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