HOSPITAL 'JUMPING GUN' ON MATERNITY DOWNGRADE, SAYS MP

Eastbourne & Willingdon MP Nigel Waterson has expressed ‘serious concern’ that today midwives and healthcare assistants working at the Eastbourne DGH maternity unit have been told they must re-apply for their jobs. This comes 4 days in advance of the key PCT meeting which is supposed to make final decisions about maternity services in East Sussex.

Nigel commented: “I am seriously concerned to hear this news. It seems to me that the hospital authorities are ‘jumping the gun’ ahead of decisions by the NHS authorities. This sort of thing only serves to cement the impression that these issues were cut and dried many months ago, and that the public consultation has been a sham all along.”

“It seems that the process of downgrading maternity services at the DGH has already started.”

17 December 2007