A deeply worrying decision by our NHS Trust to move cardiac intervention services away from the Conquest Hospital in Hastings to Eastbourne

I would like to express my gratitude to Dr Andrew Young for raising the deeply worrying issue of the decision by our local NHS Trust to move cardiac intervention services away from the Conquest to Eastbourne DGH.

SEE ALSO: Transfering Cardiac Intervention Services from the Conquest Hospital in Hastings to Eastbourne is 'unfair, undemocratic and a fatal example of levelling down.'

This may make sense to the trust but geographically there is no logic to the people living in the Conquest catchment area. From here to the DGH is a minimum of 30 minutes at the best time of the day, much longer at rush hour, add to this drive-time the inevitable delays in calling and waiting for an ambulance to arrive and the time elapsed could easily exceed that critical first hour. This move needs to be scrapped, immediately.

Have you read....: NHS Sussex approves moving specialist heart surgeries from Hastings to Eastbourne

I have little doubt that those of us who have not suffered a cardiac event will know at least one person who has. Putting defibrillators in village phone boxes is laudable, but useless if there is no timely back-up.

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