Paediatric department concerns at Eastbourne DGH discussed at parliament

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During Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday (February 7), Lib Dem MP Daisy Cooper challenged the Government to intervene and ‘call in’ the changes currently being made to DGH paediatrics.

Changes made by DGH bosses include replacing on-site paediatric doctors in Eastbourne with ‘Advanced Paediatric Nurse Practitioners’.

According to Josh Babarinde, Eastbourne’s parliamentary spokesperson for the Eastbourne and Willingdon Liberal Democrats, local clinicians and campaigners are concerned this could mean more families will have to travel to Hastings to see specialist child doctors.

A spokesperson for the East Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust has previously debunked these claims, stating that the hospital is ‘not transferring any services to the Conquest’.

"Seriously ill children that are treated by the ambulance service are taken to Conquest already and any care requiring an overnight stay is also provided at Conquest,” the spokesperson said.

"This has long been the case and isn't affected by these changes.”

In his response to Ms Cooper, the Prime Minister did not commit to calling-in the decision and instead accused local campaigners of 'scaremongering'. Following this, Mr Babarinde said he was ‘flabbergasted at the arrogance of our Prime Minister’, in a statement on social media.

Local concerns about the restructuring of Eastbourne DGH’s paediatrics department were discussed at parliament this week. Photo: Eastbourne Lib Dems

Mr Babarinde has said he will ‘continue fighting for our hospital and our town’ after publishing a petition on the matter – which was signed by more than 3,000 people – and holding an emergency public meeting to raise awareness of plans to restructure the DGH department.

He said: “I’m pleased to have worked with Lib Dem MP Daisy Cooper to escalate this issue to the highest level possible.

“The Government must now intervene to protect our paediatrics department in Eastbourne.

“I’ve already had a GP get in touch to tell me that, as a result of the changes to DGH paediatrics, their GP practice has already begun to refer poorly children to Hastings for emergency care because the paediatric doctors they needed were not in Eastbourne.

“Despite today’s non-answer from Rishi Sunak, I sincerely hope the Conservative Government steps in and does not let our town down.”