CRITICALLY ill patients with severe head injuries could be treated in Sussex by the end of the year.

At the moment the most seriously hurt patients have to be airlifted to specialist hospitals in London.

The Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton is a major accident and emergency centre for the South East but its specialist head injuries team is based in the grounds of Princess Royal Hospital in Haywards Heath, 20 miles away.

It means patients with multiple injuries, including ones to the brain, are sent to alternative hospitals where all services are based on the same site.

Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust plans to move its brain surgery services from Haywards Heath to Brighton this year, which would mean more patients could be treated in the county. The move ties in with the trust’s planned £420 million re-development of the Royal Sussex, which is due to begin in earnest later this year and be completed in 2023.

The new-look hospital will include a helipad, meaning patients could be taken straight down to A&E instead of the air ambulance landing on open land nearby and the patient being transferred by ambulance.

Moving brain injury services to Brighton would mean some services based at the Royal Sussex would have to move to Haywards Heath to make room.

This includes the team which treats patients for broken or fractured hips, which deals with about 460 cases a year. Urology services would also be transferred to Haywards Heath.

In a message to staff, trust chief executive Matthew Kershaw said: “In Sussex today, people who sustain the most serious injuries to their body and head are taken to a hospital in London.

“Moving neurosurgery to Brighton will locate it alongside our other key emergency and specialist services, ensure we can provide immediate and co-coordinated treatment to these patients, and improve the care we provide for many of our other elective and emergency patients.”