Issue - items at meetings - '3T' Development of the Royal Sussex County Hospital

Update from Brighton & Sussex University Hospitals Trust (BSUHT) on the trust’s ‘3T’ plans to develop the Royal Sussex County Hospital site. This will be presented by Duncan Selbie, Chief Executive, and Duane Passman, 3T Director, BSUHT (copy attached)

33.1    This item was introduced by Mr Duncan Selbie, Chief Executive, and Mr Duane Passman, 3T Programme Director and Director of Facilities and Estates, Brighton & Sussex University Hospital.

33.2    In response to questions regarding the suitability of the Brighton General Hospital site for the temporary provision of rheumatology physiotherapy/outpatients services during the 3T rebuild, Mr Passman confirmed that the site would be made fit for purpose before any services were located there. Mr Passman offered to provide members with more detailed information in writing on this matter.

33.3    In answer to a question from Cllr Marsh about the proportion of ‘single rooms’ in the re-developed hospital accommodation, Mr Passman told members that various specialities within the Royal Sussex County Hospital (RSCH) and Patient Groups had been canvassed on this issue, but support for 100% single rooms had been limited. In some instances this was because the need to keep higher dependency patients under observation (e.g. on neurosurgical wards) mitigated against the use of single rooms. Mr Passman confirmed that each single room would have its own en-suite sanitary facilities. Where it is not intended to supply single rooms, the 3T plans do specify that beds in four-bedded wards will be very widely spaced, to maximise privacy. It was also confirmed that each 4-bedded bay would have two en-suite WCs.

33.4    In response to a query from Cllr Theobald regarding single-sex wards, Mr Passman told members that the hospital was committed to providing gender-appropriate accommodation wherever possible. This might not necessarily be via single-sex ‘wards’ as wards could quite properly be mixed as long as patients within these wards were accommodated appropriately – for instance in single rooms or in single sex bays effectively discrete from other parts of the ward.

33.5    In answer to a question from Cllr Robins regarding the use of local workers on the 3T build, Mr Passman told the committee that the hospital wanted to maximise the use of local contractors. However, the specialist nature of some of the build, the sheer size of the project, and the desire to maximise off-site fabrication to reduce waste meant that a good deal of the work would be likely to go to out of city contractors. Mr Passman estimated that it should nonetheless be possible to source at least 30% of the build value locally, but that this would still be subject to confirmation until all the works packages had been tendered.

33.6    In response to a query from Mr Robert Brown about the siting of the trauma helipad, Mr Passman told members that it had originally been thought unlikely that the roof of the Thomas Kemp building would be robust enough to site a helipad. However, more detailed investigation had contradicted this initial impression, and it was now planned to use this location..

33.7    In answer to questions regarding car parking and access to the RSCH site, Mr Selbie told members that, in addition to the significant increase in car parking space included in the 3T scheme, the hospital was actively pursuing a number of plans to reduce pressure on the RSCH site. These included a desire that the City establish a park and ride for the hospital and purchasing a city car park to use for staff parking. However, successfully implementing these plans depended upon more than the good intentions of the Hospital: the city council was a very significant player here.

33.8    The Chair thanked Mr Selbie and Mr Passman for their contributions and welcomed the offer of additional information on plans to make use of the Brighton General Hospital site during the 3T build.