Appendix 1 - Uckfield day surgery unit

Proposed · This went to the meeting on Thu 11 Dec 2025. What was decided is in that meeting's minutes.

The Trust is proposing to relocate all Day Surgery Unit activity and staff from Uckfield Community Hospital to its two main sites at Eastbourne and Hastings, following a 6-month pilot that ran from December 2024 to June 2025. p15

The evaluation found that 88.3% of sampled patients were able to access treatment closer to their homes, with the average travel distance decreasing by 10.3 miles per journey. p18p19

All Uckfield DSU activity has been re-provided and rebooked at the Eastbourne District General Hospital site, with no activity cancelled as a result. p40

The Trust anticipates finalising its plans in December 2025 and beginning to implement the change permanently from the new year. p45

Show the 5 passages this is based on

• p15Agreement of Case for Change & Pilot Project 1.19 The case for change was agreed by ESHT Board in August 2024, followed by conversations with the ICB who endorsed the principles of the case for change. A 6-month pilot period was agreed with the ICB as the next step. 1.20 In December 2024 we launched the 6-month pilot to test our proposal that overall productivity and patient experience would benefit from relocating our DSU activity and staff from Uckfield to our two main sites at Eastbourne and Hastings. 1.21 The pilot ran from December 2024 and finished in June 2025, after which we conducted a review of the initial data over the Summer of 2025. Showing that we did see and treat people as quickly as possible. The results of the pilot are summarised in section 2.
• p18· 88.3% of sampled patients were able to access treatment closer to their homes.
• p19· The average travel distance across the sample decreased by 10.3 miles per journey.
• p40Activity Transferred from Uckfield DSU 2.13 The surgical specialties that were transferred from Uckfield DSU were Maxillofacial Surgery, Urology, Ophthalmology, Vascular Surgery, and Dermatology. 2.14 All Uckfield DSU activity was re-provided and rebooked at the EDGH site. No activity has been cancelled as a result. 2.15 Most specialties have seen an increase in capacity (more lists), activity (more patients), or productivity (more patients per list). 2.16 Maxillofacial surgery demonstrated an increase in cases with an average of 22 cases per week in the pilot, compared with 20 cases per week during the baseline, a 10% increase 2.17 Urology increased their productivity by increasing the number of cases on a list. This meant they could deliver the same level of activity with fewer lists, and this releases both consultant and theatre capacity for other clinical work. Urology ran on average 23 lists per week the baseline period to see the same level of activity as was achieved on only 21 lists in the pilot period, equating to a 9.5% increase in productivity.
• p45Next Steps and ongoing engagement 2.27 We anticipate being in a position to finalise our plans in December 2025, and begin implementing this as a permanent change from the new year. 2.28 Over the course of this timeframe and beyond, we will continue to communicate further with our stakeholders over this period, and throughout the implementation phase, to ensure that we make the changes in the best way for our patients and populations, as well as to ensure that people have all the information they need to continue to access services, including information on travel reimbursement schemes where eligible, NEPTS, public transport, and car parking. 2.29 Following implementation and ongoing communications, we will bring an implementation update back to HOSC in June 2026. [1] Please note that the case for change indicated that Uckfield DSU completed approximately 800-850 cases a year, with a reducing trend (approx. 650 at the time of the pilot launch). In comparison. the Trust completes in the order of 56,000 elective cases a year across all of its sites. Uckfield DSU therefore accounts for between 1.2-1.5% of total Trust elective activity. Seeing a statistically significant impact in Trustwide data is therefore unlikely as a result of the Uckfield DSU relocation alone