Doctors and nurses are preparing for one of the most complicated operations ever to be carried out at the Royal Sussex County Hospital.
They are about to transfer the entire team dealing with the most serious head and brain injuries from the Hurstwood Park Neurosciences Centre, in Haywards Heath, to Brighton.
The move is due to take place from Friday, June 19, to Sunday, June 21, when the London to Brighton Bike Ride is happening.
The preparations for the move have been gathering pace for years.
Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals chief executive Matthew Kershaw told his boardroom colleagues that work on the new neurotheatres, intensive treatment unit (ITU), recovery rooms and MRI scanners was almost complete.
In a report to the trust board Mr Kershaw said: “A number of departments and services are involved in the planning of the service moves and the intention is to minimise the number of in-patients who need to be moved between sites.”
The transfer of services from the Hurstwood Park Neurosciences Centre, in Haywards Heath, to the Royal Sussex is part of the £480 million modernisation of the Brighton hospital.
It means that more major trauma patients will be able to be treated locally, including those who have been involved in serious road accidents.
Many patients are currently taken by ambulance or helicopter to hospital in London where the injuries to their head and the rest of their body can be treated in the same place.
Patients treated locally often have the worst of their bodily injuries, including heavy bleeding and broken bones, treated or stabilised in Brighton.
They may then be sent to Hurstwood Park so that their head injuries can be managed.
Bringing trauma services together is expected to improve survival rates. It should also give those patients who do survive a better recovery and a better of quality of life when they do recover.
At the same time as neurosciences move to Brighton, some patients currently treated in Kemp Town will in future be seen at the Princess Royal Hospital (PRH), in Haywards Heath.
Services for those with a common type of broken leg – fractured neck of femur – and inpatient urology treatment will switch to the PRH over the same weekend.
While fewer relatives and friends will have to travel to London to visit patients in the future, staff will need to travel to a different workplace.
Likewise, patients and staff from Brighton will now need to make their way to the PRH.
Mr Kershaw said: “It has been agreed to provide an express bus service between the sites for a six-month period pending a longer-term review of the organisation’s travel and transport policy.”
