From Sunday (1st November) Sussex Community NHS Trust will provide adult community services including district nursing, the minor injuries unit and intermediate care beds in Crowborough.
In June the GP-led Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) announced that through a competitive bid process Sussex Community NHS Trust were successful in winning the contract to provide community services in High Weald, Lewes and Havens area of East Sussex.
Sussex Community NHS Trust is the main provider of community services across Brighton & Hove and West Sussex.
Sussex Community NHS Trust (SCT) will provide care in peoples own homes, working closely with local GPs, and community services at the three community hospitals in Crowborough, Lewes and Uckfield.
SCT is delighted to be providing the following adult community services in the area:
- District/community nursing
- Minor injuries units
- End of life care
- Intermediate care beds
- Specialist nursing
- Community diagnostics
- Community dietetic
- Community heart failure
- Community neurological rehabilitation
- Community occupational therapy
- Community respiratory service
- Continence
- Speech and language therapy
- Tissue viability service.
Since being awarded the contract the CCG and SCT have been working together to ensure safe transfer of the services.
High Weald, Lewes and Havens Clinical Commissioning Group brings together 125 GPs, working in 22 practices. The CCG buys and plans health services on behalf of 164,000 local people in the towns of Crowborough, Lewes, Uckfield, Newhaven, Heathfield and the villages in this area of East Sussex.
Dr Sarah Perry, clinical lead for community services at the CCG said:
We are confident that we will have a broad range of services designed to meet the needs of our population with our community hospitals at the heart of these services. We are looking forward to future developments and improvements in the services alongside on going engagement with patients and staff.
SCT replace East Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust. ESHT which runs services at Eastbourne District General Hospital and the Conquest in Hastings remains the provider of maternity services at Crowborough Hospital.
SCT say they are looking forward to continuously improve services in the area and has created Sussex Healthcare Alliance, working together with a number of key delivery partners who bring an enhanced range of skills to provide better health and care outcomes for local people. Age UK East Sussex will provide community navigators to signpost people to appropriate health and care services including local voluntary groups.
Other key partners include Brighton & Hove Integrated Care Service (BICS) and Queen Victoria Hospital NHS Foundation Trust. BICS have experience in care pathway design and specific expertise in building relationships with community services and GPs. Queen Victoria Hospital in East Grinstead will provide experienced diagnostics/imaging/X-Ray, tissue viability/pressure damage and telemedicine.
Paula Head, chief executive at SCT said:
We’re delighted to be providing adult community services now in the High Weald Lewes Havens area of East Sussex. Our teams have been working hard to ensure safe transfer of the services for our patients and for staff who are joining our SCT family. We’re working together with the CCG, our partners and other local providers to improve health and care outcomes for the people of High Weald Lewes Havens.
SCT is also working very closely with other local NHS provider partners including Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust, Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust, East Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust and Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust to ensure seamless pathways of care.
Further information about the contract, these services and Sussex Healthcare Alliance is available online: www.sussexcommunity.nhs.uk/hwlh.
SCT has expressed a strong commitment to increase staffing levels. More information about working for SCT is available online: www.sussexcommunity.nhs.uk/jobs.
