One of the key priorities for the trust, along with our health and care partners across Sussex, is to reduce the time that people wait for care and treatment.
In support of this aim, we have identified an opportunity to increase the overall number of day surgery procedures we can provide to our communities – meaning that more people will be able to receive their surgery more quickly – if we bring the non-complex day cases that currently take place at Uckfield Community Hospital onto our main sites at Eastbourne District General Hospital and Conquest Hospital in Hastings.
Our latest data shows that of the patients recently treated at our day surgery unit in Uckfield, almost 90% live nearer to our two main hospitals in Hastings and Eastbourne – so for the vast majority of our patients receiving surgical treatment at Uckfield, a change in location should also bring care closer to home.
We will be testing this approach for six months, to understand if it can mean we can support more people more quickly, especially over the winter period – including those living in the Uckfield area. We will then review the impact of the pilot and consider if any longer term changes in how the service operates is appropriate.
The wider range of services at Uckfield Community Hospital – outpatient consultations and rehabilitation services – remain unchanged and all patients who currently have their procedure booked in at Uckfield have been contacted, and the timeframe for receiving their procedure has been protected.