New service on its way to St Richard's Hospital

Major improvements were predicted at a meeting of the county's health overview and scrutiny committee, if the proposals go ahead after extensive public consultation.

For Chichester, there are plans to bring back opthalmic surgery

to St Richard's Hospital.

Large numbers of people with eye problems at present have to travel to Worthing Hospital, which means a round trip of more than 40 miles from the city, and much further from some other parts of the area.

Refurbishment of the opthalmic outpatients' department at St Richard's '“ described as inadequate in terms of space and facilities, and in a poor state of repair '“ is also proposed.

The developments are included in a new clinical strategy prepared by the Western Sussex Hospitals NHS Trust.

They also include plans to move inpatient orthopaedics and elderly care beds from Southlands to Worthing Hospital, and move opthalmology from Worthing to Southlands.

Nick Fox, the trust's director of strategy, said the first priority was that solutions should be clinically appropriate, and acceptable to the local community.

Previous proposals suggested the closure of Southlands, but this was not on the agenda, and the hospital was seen as a 'very key resource' for the future.

"We see Worthing as an acute hub for the whole of the eastern patch, and need to improve services there and prepare and change the campus and bring it up to date," he told the committee.

They would be working under constraints over the next few years, but there was a window of opportunity to improve and to deliver significant change '“ if the proposals were supported by the local community. There are funds available at the moment.

A 12-week consultation was proposed to start early in June. "If this is supported, we want to move it forward fairly quickly," said Mr Fox.

Committee member Cllr James Walsh said he believed the proposals would result in an improvement in services, and could lead to a very efficient use of NHS money.

"Presentation, and engagement with the public, are an essential part of this," said Cllr Walsh.

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