Bexhill Hospital in the frontline!

John Barnes, chairman of the new Bexhill and Rother Primary Care Trust which is based at the hospital, was guest speaker at a recent committee meeting of the league, which has pledged 890,000 for Irvine Unit improvements.

"The Health Service is changing - and changing at a extraordinarily rapid rate," he told the league.

Almost as soon as he arrived, the PCT was told that regional offices were going to be revised and the nation s health authorities reduced to between 28 and 32 new-look strategic health authorities.

"We will be playing many of the functions that the health authority used to carry on.

"This year, we are just a commissioning authority, which means we buy the health care for 75 per cent of the services for Bexhill and Rother."

From April, the PCT would take over the Irvine Unit and the community and mental health staff based at Bexhill Health Centre.

This would have profound effects for 45,000 Bexhill patients and the people of nearby villages.

Merger between the Hastings and Rother and Eastbourne NHS Trusts now appeared a certainty.