A SPECIALIST centre for people suffering from sleep disorders has opened a new outpatient clinic.

The unit, run by the Queen Victoria Hospital in East Grinstead, is based at the War Memorial Hospital in Bognor.

The decision to open the clinic came in response to requests from patients in the coastal part of the county who wanted specialist support closer to home. The sleep disorder service has been running in East Grinstead for 24 years and is the largest service of its kind in the south.

It receives about 2,500 new referrals a year.

Clinical director Peter Venn said: “Our new Bognor clinic will help improve patients’ experience of our sleep disorder service by bringing it to them.

“This is an exciting opportunity for us to expand our service which is popular and highly regarded.”

The clinic will provide home-based investigations wherever possible but more complex investigations and treatments where a sleep study is needed will take place in East Grinstead.

This involves a person staying in one of the hospital’s specially set up bedrooms while equipment records their brain waves, oxygen levels, heart rate and breathing.

It also monitors eye and leg movements while people sleep.

Follow-up appointments for patients will form a major part of the routine service at Bognor.

GPs can refer patients directly to the clinic.