A message from Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust on temporary winter service changes

The following is a message from Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust:

“The NHS across Sussex has been working hard to put plans in place that will allow services to remain safe and ensure local people can continue to access the best possible care as quickly as possible over the busy winter period.

These plans focus on the national NHS priorities set out ahead of Christmas and New year period to protect patient safety, prioritise urgent and emergency care and achieve financial balance.

In order to achieve these plans, it is necessary for some services to be temporarily changed or reduced, to allow staff to be redeployed temporarily to other services so they can continue to be safe and of the highest quality. There’s also a need to reduce the use of agency staff in some areas in order to manage resources effectively.

In line with this work, Sussex Partnership has reviewed all of its services to identify areas where we are able to temporarily redeploy staff at pace. As such, we have made the difficult decision to temporarily reduce the Memory Assessment and Dementia Services, provided in West Sussex and in High Weald, Lewes and Havens in East Sussex, from January 2024 until end March 2024.

In addition we are also planning to temporarily reduce the number of dementia beds we currently provide in Sussex from 50 to 40.”

Memory and Dementia Assessment services

“Please be assured that we will continue to see patients who have started their treatment programme and we will remain open to referrals. During the period of temporary redeployment, we will not be able to see new patients and support them as soon as we would like.

We are putting in place detailed signposting for patients, families and carers about how they can access support and advice during this period which will be available in due course.”

Dementia bed provision

“We are working to enable patients who are ready for discharge to be able to leave safely and we will be supporting those who continue to need a bed, along with their families and carers, to find the most appropriate alternative care.

We appreciate how important both these services are to the people who use them; their families and carers, and we have explored all other options to allow us to temporarily redeploy staff before taking these very difficult decisions. We are currently working through detailed arrangements with our staff and will be communicating with the people who use these services to let them know about the planned temporary changes.”

For more information

For more information please visit the NHS Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust website here: https://www.sussexpartnership.nhs.uk/about-us/news-events/latest-news/temporary-changes-our-service-over-winter-period