A busy hospital accident and emergency department was closed for urgent cases for seven hours after part of it was flooded.

The alarm was raised at the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton at around noon yesterday.

Maintenance work was being carried out on an air conditioning unit above the A&E but a problem with the drain led to a leak.

The damage affected the section where the most seriously ill patients are treated, including the resuscitation area.

East Sussex Fire and Rescue Service sent one of its hazardous materials teams to the hospital because air conditioning tank contain a chemical, but the risk of harm from it was said to be zero.
 

South East Coast Ambulance Service was put on divert, with more than a dozen patients who would otherwise be treated at the Royal Sussex sent to hospitals in Haywards Heath, Worthing and Eastbourne instead.

The major trauma unit at Southampton General Hospital was also on standby to take any seriously injured patients.

Nikki Luffingham, chief operating officer at Brighton and Sussex Uni- versity Hospitals NHS Trust, said: “At around midday some scheduled works in a plant room at the Royal Sussex caused a significant leak which resulted in a flood in the area of the emergency department immediately below

. “Patients from the majors/resusci- tation areas had to be relocated to unaffected areas of the emergency department and, whilst the affected areas were made safe and cleaned up, ambulances were diverted to neigh- bouring hospitals.

“No patients were evacuated and the department remained open to “walk in” patients.”

Fire crews from Hove and Preston Circus were sent to the scene, along with the technical rescue unit from Lewes to help pump water out of the department.

Relief crews from Roedean and Hove were also mobilised to the incident.

Firefighters left the scene at 6.30pm last night. It’s understood the department reopened at 7pm yesterday.