CAROLINE ANSELL MP: More great funding news for Eastbourne DGH and the NHS

This Herald column is published on Valentine’s Day, and our wonderful NHS is to feel the love!
Eastbourne MP Caroline AnsellEastbourne MP Caroline Ansell
Eastbourne MP Caroline Ansell

More great funding news came to Eastbourne last week when East Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust announced it will receive £5.05 million to work up detailed plans to develop Eastbourne District General, Bexhill and Conquest Hospitals over the next decade.

The total investment in patient care at the three sites will eventually be around £500 million – a mighty sum by any measure.

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The trio are in the second wave funding round earmarked for 2025-2030 in the Government’s Health Infrastructure Plan, which includes 40 hospitals across England.

There are already initial plans and proposals but also time ahead where I will be working closely with East Sussex MP colleagues and hospital leaders to realise the full potential of this tremendous, transformative investment.

The Prime Minister announced his intention to invest in our NHS in this way before the election and here is where it begins!

I fully agree with the trust’s chief executive that this is a major vote of confidence in it and it is very exciting news.

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The DGH and the NHS is close to my heart and the reason I got into politics. It saved my son’s life and all my three boys were born at DGH.

The staff are amazing and fully deserve this vote of confidence too and they also deserve the very best working conditions and facilities to help patients.

Getting the support you need in our home town is important, and I’m engaging with health commissioners on local services for eating disorders, but the best facilities can also mean the NHS needs to have regional and specialist centres of excellence so that patients get the very best treatment.

That does, unfortunately, sometimes mean we have to make journeys to receive that care; as a ‘frequent flyer’ with my boy at world-leading Great Ormond Street Hospital, I’m only too aware of that.

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In my first term as the town’s MP, I started a campaign to see a hospital shuttle bus service between Eastbourne and Hastings.

I’m turbo-charging that now as I seek to make the case in Parliament.

Watch this space for updates but meantime, if you have had a personal experience on public transport between the Eastbourne and Hastings that shows just how fragmented and costly this can be, please get in touch with me at [email protected]

Happy Valentine’s!