The chief executive of Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust has updated staff on coronavirus preparations.
Marianne Griffiths, who also heads Western Sussex Hospitals Trust, issued what will be the first of daily video message updates on what the Royal Sussex and other hospitals are doing.
In it, she said she wanted to reassure staff and patients that the hospital has the kit that it needs and that more is on order.
She said non-urgent operations were being cancelled and a plan was being made in case the situation worsened.
She said: “Just looking around and speaking to staff I’m really aware of the anxiety that the whole of this process is causing and it’s completely understandable
“None of us have experience of working through a virus like this and we have relatives that we’re worried about, we have colleagues we’re worried about.”
She said staff had told her particular areas of concern included the levels of protective equipment, and she said the hospitals do have enough and there’s more on order.
She said maybe in certain areas people weren’t able to access it as soon as possible and processes are being tightened so staff can access it quickly and safely.
Staff were also worried about how they will deal with the numbers of sick people coming into hospital
She said they were working on a system to empty the hospital as quickly as possible, taking decisions about cancelling all non-urgent and elective procedures
Plans for intensive care and A&E being resourced and giving time for the hospital to plan in a way which allows them to redeploy and train staff who work in different areas.
She said more details would become available in the coming days.
She said a huge amount of work was also being done to address concerns over self-isolation and school closures policies which would be addressed in the next couple of days.
She added: “Seeing how staff are coming together and working with us as leaders of the organisation helping us not just to identify problems but come up with solutions has just been inspiring over the last couple of weeks.
“It absolutely gives me the confidence that if we continue to work together we will deal with this viral epidemic as well as anyone else in the country and probably better.”
