Nicholas Soames attended the first of the West Sussex Primary Care Trust’s North East County Review public meetings at East Court in East Grinstead on Friday, 23rd May.

Extract from Nicholas Soames’s speech at the public meeting;

“Whilst we of course welcome the preservation of A&E facilities at the PRH it is about the maternity services that we remain profoundly worried.

The downgrading of maternity services at the PRH would mean the displacement of 2000 births from the PRH to other less convenient and we believe less safe venues.

As the Member of Parliament for Mid Sussex I would be grateful for your assurance that the interests of East Grinstead and its surrounding area are most carefully considered.

This part of my constituency sits in one of the most rapidly growing parts of the country and it makes absolutely no sense medically or otherwise to have no baby unit effectively as between Redhill and Worthing.

I would like the panel to acknowledge that 72,000 people from Mid Sussex have signed a petition in support of their local valued and much needed health service and 22,000 came together in two memorable marches to stand shoulder to shoulder in defence of the PRH.

As their Member of Parliament I urge you to accept that my constituents in the northern part of my constituency would definitely prefer to have their babies in a local hospital, which frankly means maintaining a full maternity unit, and when a baby is born or someone is taken ill in the night, the family wants to be able to visit the next day without making a long round trip, being unable to park and having great difficulty getting there and back. These are human needs and the PCT and the Strategic Health Authority need to grasp them and understand them.

Finally, whilst the Support the Princess Royal Hospital Campaign will be submitting the most detailed and factual evidence I would like to remind the panel again that the projected new house build in this area and southwards will produce population growth over the next 18 years which will well outstrip the health services infrastructural facilities – with very substantial population increases across the whole of Crawley, Horsham, Lewes, Wealden and Mid Sussex combined.”