Some opportunities come along once in a lifetime. One of those opportunities is coming along tomorrow (Friday).
Twelve councillors will decide whether to approve a £420 million plan to modernise the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton.
The aim of the scheme is to replace pretty much the whole of the southern half of the site – the buildings facing Eastern Road. And to perch a helipad on top of the existing Thomas Kemp Tower, the building in which thousands of Brightonians have been born.
If the plan is approved, bigger and better-equipped new buildings will go up. And the bulldozers will sweep away the pre-Victorian Barry Building, which dates from the 1820s. And the Jubilee Building, opened in 1887, will also be demolished.
The interior of the much-loved and admired chapel will be preserved and included in one of the replacement buildings.
The plans are a vital part of what is known as the 3Ts project. This involves modernising the Royal Sussex as it becomes the regional centre of excellence for the 3Ts:
- Teaching,
- Trauma and
- Tertiary care.
The teaching bit is fairly obvious. The hospital jointly runs the newest – and most popular – medical school in the country with Brighton and Sussex universities.
Many patients’ first experience of trauma care is in A&E, although patients go to A&E with other problems. In layman’s terms, trauma usually involves broken bones or heavy bleeding or both. The bleeding may be internal and the trauma may involve serious head injuries. Car crashes and horse riding accidents are the most common causes.
Tertiary care is led by specialist consultants serving a much wider area than Brighton and Hove. They treat, among others, patients with cancer, kidney disease, HIV, heart and neurological problems and some of the children at the new Royal Alex.
While many of us have a fond regard for the Barry Building, it has been described as impractical, expensive to maintain and falling short of widely accepted modern standards.
Given the cramped nature of the Royal Sussex site, the Barry Building’s replacement will cover more ground and be five storeys tall. It will sit beside an 11-storey building with three “fingers” which will occupy much of the south eastern end of the Royal Sussex site.
Both new buildings will sit over an underground car park.
The possibility of moving has been mooted from time to time. Land was even identified as suitable for hospital buildings – at Falmer – although it was for complementary facilities not a replacement.
But plans to upgrade the current site have been the only serious proposals for the best part of 50 years.
Duane Passman, 48, who is leading the 3Ts project, said: “The expression of that was the Thomas Kemp Tower in 1969. The original plan was to have two more buildings like that, but given the economic circumstances of the time, they were canned.”
Needs
Mr Passman has led seven similar projects before and noted: “This is the one that needs it the most. The Barry Building is the second oldest building in the NHS in-patient inventory. We keep it dry. We keep it clean. We do the very best we can with it. We spend a lot of money on it and the medical staff do the best they can in the circumstances.”
