After East Sussex NHS summer crisis, Lewes constituency’s MP calls for emergency measures to protect patients in time for winter

 Liberal Democrat MP for Lewes, Newhaven, Seaford, Polegate and local villages, James MacCleary, said that the annual ‘winter crisis’ in the NHS had now turned into a “permacrisis” with local health services buckling under pressure all year round, putting patients at risk. James said that the Government needed to bring forward an emergency package of measures to protect people ahead of the even busier winter months.

The figures also found that long waits in East Sussex have been soaring. In the data reported so far on the summer months, which covers June and July, there have been 36 waits of 12 hours or longer from when a decision to admit a patient is made to that patient actually being admitted.

These ‘trolley waits’ have risen sharply from the 2015 summer period where they were virtually non-existent in East Sussex with zero recorded.

These long delays can have deadly consequences. Analysis by the Royal College of Emergency Medicine has previously stated that 16,600 deaths were linked to long A&E waits before admission in 2024.

The Lewes constituency MP said that the emergency package of measures should include plans to increase vaccine uptake for seasonal illnesses, expand access to pharmacies and a recruitment and retention drive to increase the number of out-of-hours GPs. James MacCleary said that this would take pressure off stretched A&E waiting rooms and protect patients.

James said: I have consistently campaigned for better local health services for my constituency – from health hubs in Seaford and Polegate to restoring outpatient blood tests in Lewes. Getting this right is key to preventing long hospital waits in the first place.

“Local health services in East Sussex have entered a state of permacrisis. The typical winter pressures that we see are now being felt all year round and patients and their loved ones are paying the price.

“The Conservative party’s shameful neglect of local health services here in Lewes, Newhaven, Seaford, Polegate and our villages brought us to this point but this Labour government needs to realise that we could be sleepwalking towards disaster this winter unless Ministers take urgent action.

“We need an emergency package of measures to protect patients and their families from agony this winter. These need to include increasing vaccine uptake for seasonal illnesses, increasing access to pharmacies and expanding the number of out-of-hours GPs.

“Without them many more people could go through terrible agony here in my constituency missing out on the care they desperately need.”