A WOMAN is outraged by the lack of air conditioning in a hospital.

She has been visiting an ill relative in the kidney unit at the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton for the last three weeks.

The Brighton resident, who asked not to be named, said conditions have reached a “disgusting level” due to the lack of air conditioning in certain parts of the building.

She said: “It’s like a third world country, it’s so hot in there because their air conditioning is just awful.

“It has been like this for weeks.

“The temperature is completely unacceptable and I just feel for the poor patients.

“It’s terrible conditions if you are vulnerable and not feeling well.

“Even the poor staff are sweating all the time.”

The woman said she feels particularly concerned for the patients’ welfare.

She said: “It must be getting on for about three weeks now these poor people have had to put up with these conditions.

“I just don’t understand why it is so bad.

“If it carries on like this there is going to be some awful epidemic.

“It’s summer and the weather is just going to get warmer.

“There is a lot of money going into developing this hospital and they can’t seem to put aside some money to fix the aircon properly.

“This has happened at the hospital before.

A spokesman for Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust, which runs the hospital, said: “The Sussex Kidney Unit chiller was reaching the end of its life.

“We had to take it out to replace it which means there was a period where it wasn’t working. But it should be up and running now as we have replaced it.

“This is what would happen across any building, anywhere.

“Unfortunately there has to be a short part of time where it isn’t working while we are replacing it. We have done it because we did not want to be fixing it in the middle of the summer.”