Scrutiny For Planned New East Sussex Mental Health Care 'Campus'

NHS leaders have faced questions from councillors as plans to open a state-of-the-art mental health campus in East Sussex gets set for public consultation. 

On Thursday (June 10), members of the East Sussex Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee (HOSC) looked at proposals to replace the Department of Psychiatry, based at Eastbourne DGH, with a new inpatient mental health facility.

Committee members heard how the new site, to be built within the next three years, could be expanded in future, eventually providing a single inpatient facility for the whole of East Sussex.

According to NHS plans, two sites are being considered for the new facility: a greenfield site close to Wrestwood Road in Bexhill (considered the preferred option) and a site near Amberstone Hospital in Hailsham.

With the plans and sites set to go out to consultation on Monday (June 14), HOSC members asked for details about the next stages.

These included Eastbourne councillor Alan Shuttleworth, who raised concerns that only two site options were being considered.

Cllr Shuttleworth said:

“I don’t know whether the consultation is just a narrow one, around whether we prefer the Amberstone site or the Bexhill site; or whether it is going to give an opportunity to still explore further the issues around different sites.

“There were obviously concerns around issues of access and concerns about the impacts on travel for people — for the staff, the patients, the carers, the families getting to the site.

"I don’t know whether all of that is going to be fully explored in the consultation. 

“If we are looking at a future service, should we be considering having more than one site across the area, largely around the traffic issues but also around issues like staff recruitment, where we’ve heard in the past the difficulties in getting staff.

“I wonder if we would be better to have more options and certainly an option within the larger conurbation.” 

In response to Cllr Shuttleworth’s question, Ashley Scarff of East Sussex CCG, said:

“Absolutely we recognise the potential issues around access and understanding transport to and from the options we’ve identified.

"There has been pre-work done on that, but we would want that to feature as a key strand of the consultation work we go forward with. 

“We would obviously not rule anything out, but clearly the work we have done has identified two feasible options and within consultation it is incumbent on us to be genuine about the options we believe can be delivered.”

Other councillors also raised concerns about the accessibility of the site and whether having a single site for the whole of East Sussex was actually desirable. 

However, the NHS representatives stressed that the facility would only be for specialist and acute care, with community-based services providing the bulk of mental health care in individual local areas.

On this point, Simone Button of Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, said:

“Our clinical model is very much about having a pathway approach.

"There is a lot of investment happening as we speak into our community services to make sure we are able to support and treat people effectively outside of hospital. 

“But that flow will ensure there is quick and easy access to an inpatient bed should that be required.

"The links between our inpatient beds and outpatients will remain and be very, very strong.

"Going forward we can think about how there is an even closer geographical alliance between those if need be.

“But I guess the important thing is that community services will be in those local communities for patients and there will be access for people to either go into their local community base or be seen in their local community.”

As the meeting went on, HOSC members also raised concerns about where consultation events were to take place, who was being spoken to and what other means of communication would be used to take on views given the impact of Covid-19.

Concerns were also raised about the modelling behind the proposals, through which the NHS considers it likely there would be a stable or falling demand for inpatient mental health services among working age adults.

On this point, NHS representatives said the modelling would be updated over time to reflect changing needs.

They also said the short term proposals were for a replacement of the Department of Psychiatry and later expansions would take into account future modelling. 

NHS representatives also said the wider plans come as part of a push to move away from providing mental health beds in dormitories – a practice the government wants to phase out by March 2024.

Currently the Department of Psychiatry provides 54 acute mental health care beds across three wards, as well as crisis services and a “place of safety” where police officers can take people they believe need a mental health assessment.

While it is the largest inpatient facility in East Sussex, its facilities are also dormitory-based.

On top of that, the facility is leased from East Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust – the body responsible for both the DGH and Conquest Hospital – and Sussex Partnership, the trust responsible for mental health services, has been asked to vacate the premises by 2026.

The public consultation is expected to run for 12 weeks between 14 June and 6 September 2021.

Final proposals will come back to HOSC for further discussion.