First look at new £500 million Brighton hospital building

From February, more than 30 wards and departments at the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton will be moved to the new trauma, teaching and tertiary care building from the neighbouring Barry Building, which took its first patients in 1828.

General medicine, non-invasive cardiology, and respiratory and stroke inpatient services are among those to be moving to the new site.

The new building's entrance and welcome space is 20 times larger than the existing main entrance in the Barry Building

The £483 million project will see patients treated with state-of-the-art facilities, with new theatres enabling staff to carry out surgery more effectively and improve the patient experience.

Patients will have five times as much space per bed in wards than in the Barry Building, allowing for improved privacy and dignity.

Charlotte Lee, nurse manager for ear, nose and throat outpatients at the Royal Sussex County Hospital, said her colleagues can’t wait to move in and begin working at the new site.

She said: “We’re already putting our names down to work out who will work the weekend to move us all in.

“Maxillofacial is currently situated in outpatients where the rooms are really small and have interlinking doors, which isn’t as great for privacy as we’d hope. In the new building, we have way better facilities, including X-ray facilities for our patients all in one department.

“It will be much better for patient journeys - to take a patient from here to the X-ray and bring them back will be really good.”

Charlotte Lee, nurse manager, at one of the new building's maxillofacial rooms

Space in the building has been allocated with the patient in mind, with wards that have similar services or cater to similar needs located near each other.

New theatre suites with greater capacity, along with a dedicated neurosurgery and interventional radiography, will also help the health service begin to work through waiting lists that have built up during the pandemic.

Natural light is featured throughout the new building, with the main imaging outpatients' waiting room leading out to a seafront terrace, with critical care and the medicine ward also including views across the city and the South Downs.

A terrace for patients and staff near the imaging outpatients main waiting room in the new building

Staff wellbeing has also been given due consideration, with greater space for staff breakout rooms, particularly in high-stress wards like critical care.

Tedi Anne Dela Cruz, ward leader at Bristol ward at the hospital, said: “It will have a huge impact on patient care and it’s a big improvement for staff and patients alike.

“We’ve been operating in the Barry Building, which has been providing care for the last two centuries, which has proved very challenging for us to work in very restricted spaces.

“Having this space will provide more dignity and privacy for patients and their families alike, and for staff, it will improve efficiency.”

Tedi Anne Dela Cruz by one of the beds in the medicine ward of the new hospital building

A new simulation suite and teaching facilities will feature on the 11th floor of the building to train the next generation of healthcare professionals, with space making it easier for students and staff undergoing training to observe and participate in care, without creating a sense of crowding for patients.

The second stage of development work at the Royal Sussex County Hospital will see the Barry Building demolished and replaced with a new cancer centre. Work is due to start in the spring of next year, with patients being admitted as early 2026.

A third stage will create a much-needed service and logistics yard.

The Barry Building, which has provided care to patients for almost 200 years, will be demolished to make way for a new cancer centre

Patients, staff and members of the public are being urged to come up with a name for the new building, with submissions being accepted until August 28.

Suggestions should be no more than three words long and be meaningful to the broad range of people that the hospital serves.

All suggestions will be reviewed, with a final decision being taken by the University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust Board.

A spokesman for the trust said: "Whilst we enjoy a chuckle as much as anyone, names like Hospital McHospital Face won't make it through the selection process, I'm afraid."

The new name will be unveiled towards the end of the year and will add to the building's story over the coming decades, as it serves the people of Brighton and Sussex.

People can submit their suggestions at uhsussex.nhs.uk/shareaname.