The Medical Centre
10 Richmond Road,
Pevensey Bay,
East Sussex BN24 6AQ
Stone Cross Surgery
Mimram Road
Stone Cross, Pevensey
East Sussex BN24 5DZ
Telephone 01323 761461
Fax 01323 743041
Westham Medical Centre
Church Bailey, Montague Way,
Westham, Pevensey,
East Sussex BN24 5NQ
Please direct all correspondence to the
above Stone Cross address
Re: Accident and Emergency Clinic, Eastbourne Hospital
We have been asked by the Primary Care Trust to look our patients’ attendances at Accident and Emergency
including the conditions presented to evaluate if patients could have been more appropriately treated by another
NHS Service to make better use of NHS Resources.
In addition to a potentially long wait, the average cost per attendance (that did not involve an overnight stay) for
our patients in April 2011 cost the Health Service £578.43.
You may be unaware of all the services available to you locally. There are many benefits to you as a patient to
use the services listed below instead of A&E. These include, shorter waiting times, telephone advice and an out
of hour’s service run by local GP’s.
NHS Direct (24 hours a day, 7 days a week): NHS Direct can be contacted on 0845 46 47.
It is manned by triage nurses who are trained to be able to advise you on further action or
treatment for conditions such as diarrhoea, vomiting, flu, etc.
NHS choices (www.nhs.co.uk): You can find answers to any ailments from common colds
to cancers on the A-Z health encyclopaedia on this site. There is also lots of information on
other health related matters on this site. Our practice website www.stonecrosssurgery.co.uk
also has some useful links.
Pharmacy; your local pharmacist can help by being able to advise on a number of different
ailments such as cough, sore throat, skin rash, diarrhoea (and/or) vomiting, constipation,
headache, eye conditions, hay fever, headlice, insect bites and worms.
Walk In Centre (8am-8pm): Eastbourne train station. There is a doctor’s surgery in the train
station open 8am-8pm, seven days a week. This is available to all patients from any surgery
in the area. You do not have to be registered with them to use this service. 01323 726650.
South East Health/ Out of Hours Doctors (6.30pm-8.00am Mon-Fri and 24 hours Sat
and Sun): South East Health run an out of hour’s emergency service for evenings and
weekends. This is run by local GP’s based in the out patients department in the DGH
Eastbourne. If you need a doctor or advice when our surgery is closed, you can ring 0300
242424. Our surgery opening hours are below.
Stone Cross Surgery (8.30am-6.00pm): We are available, 8.30am – 6.00pm Monday to
Friday on 01323 761461 for appointments or advice. We also offer for patients who find it
difficult to attend during normal working hours, an early morning clinic at 7am on alternate
Tuesday’s and Thursday’s and a Saturday Clinic. Please note however that these
appointments are for pre-booked appointments only.
On some occasions it may be necessary for you to attend A&E or ring 999:
A&E department at Eastbourne DGH: Accident and emergency is designed for dealing
with health matters that cannot be dealt with by the services above. For example, broken
bones, severe cuts requiring sutures and life threatening illness/accidents. Using A&E
irresponsibly results in long delays for patients who have genuine emergencies.
999: Is for chest pain, a suspected stroke, serious accident/injury, etc.
We hope this letter will help you to choose the most appropriate service for your condition.