Health bosses have been ordered to pay out tens of thousands of pounds in legal costs to campaigners who fought to save a hospital maternity unit from being downgraded.

Liz Walke, from the Save the DGH campaign, has won her battle against the NHS to recoup the costs of applying for a judicial review of the plans.

The final amount East Sussex Downs and Weald and Hastings and Rother Primary Care Trusts (PCTs) will have to pay is still being calculated.

However it will include the £40,000 donated to the campaign by Eastbourne Borough Council.

Mrs Walke, 48, had been willing to use her £250,000 home in Eskdale Close, Eastbourne, as security to help lead the fight.

She said: “This is a fantastic result.

“It is absolutely right that the PCTs should pay the costs.

“It is such a shame that the PCTs didn’t agree to this in the first place when the decision to single-site consultant led maternity care was overturned last year.

“Instead we have had to continue to fight and further costs have had to be incurred but justice has now been served.

“We have started to build a relationship with the local NHS. It has been fragile but we'd like to work on this and hope it goes from strength to strength.

“It is time to draw a line under this and now focus on the future.”

Save the DGH was set up after the PCTs announced plans to downgrade the maternity unit at Eastbourne District General Hospital from a consultant to a midwife-led one.

Campaigners said the longer journey for urgent treatment to the Conquest Hospital in St Leonards would put the lives of mothers and their unborn children at risk.

Members of an independent government review panel agreed and the PCTs were ordered to change their plans and keep full consultant-led services at both hospitals.

The plans for a judicial review have now been put on hold following the review's decision.

At a hearing in The Royal Courts of Justice on March 6, Mr Justice Collins ordered that the PCTs pay the costs of the application for review.

The PCTs had 21 days to appeal but did not make an application.

Eastbourne council leader David Tutt said: "It is fantastic news that the court have found in favour of the ‘Save the DGH Campaign’.”

The campaign group will be meeting on April 18 to discuss how the funds donated by local people will be distributed.

A spokesman for both PCTs said: “We fully accept the court’s decision.

“Having recently published a strategy to develop maternity services across East Sussex, we will continue with this work and look forward to the continued involvement of interested local people, including Liz Walke from the Save the DGH campaign group.”

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