Eastbourne District General Hospital, East Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust

Contact Details
  • Address: Eastbourne District General Hospital, East Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust, Kings Drive, Eastbourne, East Sussex, BN21 2UD
  • ICU Department Contact Details - 0300 131 5842
  • Faculty Tutor Name:  Dr Judith Highgate - Judith.highgate@nhs.net
Unit Structure
Overview of Case Mix within the Unit:
  • Eastbourne District General Hospital is part East Sussex Healthcare Trust and shares admissions with Conquest Hospital.
  • Eastbourne is the site of all inpatient ENT and urology admissions with a dedicated urology robotic theatre - all elective robotic radical cystectomies are admitted to HDU postop.
  • There is an unselected acute medical take and all stroke patients are admitted to EDGH.
  • Within the next year, all cardiology services including emergency cath lab services will be provided at EDGH.
  • There is split site working within this Unit
Research projects being undertaken within this Unit:
  • GenOMICC – site open since 2020
  • Signet – site open since 2021
Overview of the staffing for the Unit (including medical, ACCP, AHPs)
  • We are set up over 2 acute units, one at the Eastbourne DGH site and one at the Conquest site in Hastings.
  • Day time staffing at Eastbourne is : 2 core level trainees in either anaesthetics or Internal Medicine; 1 middle grade anaesthetist; a Consultant in ICM. In addition there are 2 ACCPs employed at the trust with an additional 3 ACCPs in training and an MDT team of AHPs including respiratory & rehab physiotherapists with a specialist interest in ICU, SALT, occupational therapists, dieticians and an ICU psychologist.
  • Night cover at Eastbourne is a resident middle grade anaesthetist, a core level trainee in anaesthetics and a non-resident consultant in either anaesthesia or ICM. There is always an ICM opinion available by phone via the on-call consultant.

Training

Training opportunities when working at this Unit:
  • Training in point of care ultrasound 
  • Opportunity to attend theatre for airway experience 
  • Exposure to paediatric emergencies
  • Interhospital transfers 
  • Opportunity to attend a Cardiac Catheterisation lab
  • Acting up as an ICM Consultant (for Stage 3 trainees) 

  • Other: Leadership – a number of senior medical leadership roles are currently held within the ICU & Anaesthetic department including Deputy Medical Director, Divisional Director for DAS (Diagnostics, Anaesthetics & Surgery) & Chief Clinical Information Officer for the trust.

    Follow up clinic – we have a well-established MDT follow up clinic that runs biweekly follow up clinics and rehab gym sessions with embedded physio, nursing and psychological input.
Departmental Teaching:
  • Wednesday afternoon, once a month we hold M&M, journal club and teaching. It is run cross site on MS Teams and open to all critical care professionals.
  • There is weekly Anaesthetic trainee teaching on Tuesday afternoons that is open to ICU trainees when covering ICU related topics such as ventilation.

Details of clinical governance meeting days and/or M & M:                             

  • Half day clinical governance meetings happen every other month, shared with the anaesthetic dept
  • M&M is a mix of virtual reviews of all deaths, complemented by learning and education from those deaths which raise learning points in the monthly teaching.
The medical specialties and subspecialties it is possible to complete within theTrust/Health Board:
  • Stage 1:  Emergency Medicine, Medicine & Anaesthesia              
Other facilities: 
  • On site parking available with a parking permit
  • Rest facilities available to ICM trainee on call – located within the anaesthetic department.
  • Hospital accommodation available for post on call rest if required.