Opening Date Confirmed For New Hospital Building At Royal Sussex

A multi-million-pound new building at the Royal Sussex County Hospital (RSCH) in Brighton & Hove will open fully for patients in April this year.

Named after a pioneering local doctor and surgeon, the Louisa Martindale Building (LMB) will become the new main entrance for the hospital and welcome one million people a year.

More than 14,000 pieces of equipment and tens of thousands of clinical stock items, such as gloves and bottles of hand sanitiser, are being installed in the 11-storey building to prepare for its phased opening from 11 April.

On 14 February, local dignitaries, councillors and healthcare leaders were invited on a tour of the new state-of-the-art home for a range of outpatient, ward and specialist services.

Leader of Brighton and Hove City Council, councillor Phélim Mac Cafferty, said:

“The Louisa Martindale Building is a hugely impressive new asset for our city that will improve both care and the experience of visiting hospital for all our residents.

“The new building is light, easy to get around, with art, planting and sea views to aid patient recovery. Along with a raft of new equipment, these will make it a better place for patients to recuperate and for staff to work.

“In 2012, I had the privilege of chairing the planning committee that provided unanimous consent for this redevelopment. To see the fulfilment of these plans, the quality of work and materials used with the new building marks a new chapter for health in Brighton & Hove.”

Alan Boyd, the incoming Chief Executive of Healthwatch Brighton and Hove agreed, saying:

“The attention to detail and thought that has gone into improving dignity and experience for patients in the Louisa Martindale Building was wonderful to see and learn about. The new building will undoubtedly help to transform acute services for the city, patients and staff alike.

“I would like to express my personal thanks to the wider team who have worked so hard on bringing this project to fruition. And all of us at Healthwatch now look forward to the next stage of the development.”

Most of the space in the new building will be used by services transferring from the Barry Building, the oldest NHS facility in England. The wards will have five times as much space per patient, while Outpatient Services will be moving into modern, light, and airy accommodation that will improve patient privacy and dignity.

The Intensive Care and High Dependency Units from the Thomas Kemp Tower will come together in the Louisa Martindale Building in a brand-new Critical Care Unit.

The Louisa Martindale Building will be a focal point for Neuroscience services, with wards, outpatient clinics, and a suite of neurosurgery theatres in the new facility. The Comprehensive Stroke Centre and the Neurology Ward will be side by side allowing patients from both services to benefit from a large rehabilitation unit on the same floor.

Clinical Director Dr Peter Larsen-Disney said:

“The Louisa Martindale Building provides us with wonderful new facilities, but more importantly we have benefited from unique opportunities to modernise how we provide care and work together for our patients.

“Our clinical leadership teams have strived to ensure we’ve maximised new opportunities that a larger environment has created. For instance, for the first time on the constrained RSCH site, we have been able to co-locate different teams and specialties to pursue a genuinely multi-disciplinary approach to care that we know will deliver better outcomes for our patients.”

The new building’s main entrance, The Welcome Space, will open to patients arriving for specific Outpatients Department appointments from Tuesday 11 April. Every patient whose appointment will be moving to the Louisa Martindale Building will receive a letter to instruct them where to go. Additional staff and volunteers will also be on hand to help.

Inpatient wards and patients will transfer to the upper floors of the Louisa Martindale Building during the second half of April. Ward teams will ensure all inpatients and their loved ones are kept informed of when they are moving and to which ward they will be transferring in the new facility.

Once the new building is fully operational, demolition will commence on the 19th Century Barry Building that will make way for a new Cancer Centre for Sussex. The third stage of the 3Ts Redevelopment will provide a new Logistics Centre for the whole hospital.

To find out more about the Louisa Martindale Building and the services moving in please go to www.uhsussex.nhs.uk/lmb