Major boost for Bexhill Hospital as League of Friends provides new high-tech equipment

The decision by the charity’s general committee in an online meeting was part of a package of measures totalling £204,229.

In an illustrated presentation, consultant glaucoma ophthalmologist Mr Yih-Horng Tham showed how a detailed analysis had revealed that by centralising care at Bexhill Hospital and rationalising procedures more than 14,000 people across Bexhill, Hastings and Eastbourne with the sight-threatening condition could be afforded a swifter, more efficient, diagnostic service and East Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust keep pace with demand.

Trust director of corporate affairs Lynette Wells advised that for the move to centralise the service at Bexhill to become a permanency the trust would need to undertake public consultation.

The hi-tech equipment the League of Friends is purchasing includes three Zeiss Cirrus OCT scanners, two Reichert Ocular Response Analysers and two Zeiss Vistulens Automated Focimeters.

Mr Tham said the planned Bexhill hub could become a unique diagnostic centre which would probably lead the way nationally.

The meeting also approved £10,225 for the purchase of five Bela ‘Move’ ophthalmology chairs for the hospital’s diabetic screening programme and its Dowling Unit which specialises in the treatment of age-related macular degeneration.

It is paying £8,000 for surplus space in the hospital’s Jethro Arscott eye day surgery unit to be converted into a staff room and for the existing staff room to be converted into a patient recovery room.

The meeting agreed to share the £1,920 cost of new patient lockers for the Conquest Hospital Aquatic Therapy Department with the Conquest League and to share the £5,733 cost of providing the service with waterproof laptop computers for pool-side use.

Earlier this year the League of Friends provided iPads for patients in the hospital’s Irvine Unit, responding to the coronavirus pandemic soon after lockdown.

It also paid for an outside contractor to undertake an emergency deep-clean of the unit.

The hospital, which opened in 1933, was as a result of community funding, when the town was determined to have its own hospital.

It was in this community spirit that the League of Friends of Bexhill Hospital was founded in 1952. It is the continuing generosity of the people of Bexhill which has enabled the League to provide state-of-the-art medical equipment for the benefit of Bexhill patients. Visit www.bexhillhospitalfriends.org.uk.

See also: Calendar by Bexhill photographer will support local children’s charity