THE building is fitted, wired and ready to be equipped.

Six floors of state-of-the-art technology are destined to transform health care in Brighton.

The only thing missing is the patients.

After decades in the pipeline, the first phase of a major redevelopment plan at the Royal Sussex County Hospital is almost complete.

The hospital now has £64 million of facilities that will be the pride of Sussex.

The ultimate aim is to consolidate all the services run by Brighton Health Care NHS Trust on to one site.

At the moment, wards and depart

ments are split up all over the town. But Hove General has already transferred. The Royal Alexandra Children's Hospital and the trust's services at Brighton General are sure to follow.

It will mean an end to needless trips across town from one department to another for both staff and patients. It will also, of course, save lots of money.

The development began humbly enough in 1994 with the construction of a multi-storey car park. Shortly afterwards contractors moved in to demolish an old block of nursing accommodation.

In its place now stands a new tower block packed with gleaming wards and expensive equipment, including a unit which will offer the best cardiac care in the South East.

Known simply as Block A, the new building will be formally opened and given a more imaginative name early next year.

For practical purposes the new units and wards will open in stages over the next four months.

Peter Hiles, project director, said: "This development represents a move from a series of Victorian buildings to a consolidation of all our services on one site in purpose-built accommodation.

"Hospitals are increasingly high-tech. We cannot afford to have repeat services on different sites.

"The assets we have are very expensive. We have to get our money out of them.

"The ultimate benefit is that patients will have one-stop health care provision in proper accommodation."

When the existing tower block at the Royal Sussex was built 30 years ago it was intended to be the first of three.

Between then and the building of the new block, 15 different schemes have been proposed and rejected.

The top floor is taken up entirely by the digestive disease centre, which has 55 beds and isolation wards for patients with infectious diseases.

Like all the beds in Block A, the centre is equipped with personal voice-to-voice monitors connected to the nursing station, saving nurses valuable time and ensuring patients' peace of mind. The centre is due to open on August 28.

Below this is the trauma and orthopaedic department, which will treat stretcher cases such as road accident victims. The department has 56 beds and and is due to open on July 21.

The next two floors are taken up by the Sussex Cardiac Centre, the pride of the new development. It offers a specialist coronary care unit, the only one of its kind in the South East.

Until now all heart patients in Sussex have had to travel to King's Hospital in London.

The new centre has 40 beds, including ten high-dependency bays, and is due to take its first patients from June 14.

With two specialist cardiac theatres and two catheter theatres, fully fitted with more than £2 million of equipment, the centre is ready to undertake the latest operating techniques.

Mr Hiles said: "The big advantage in having a facility here is that patients and visitors don't have to travel to a remote location.

"It will also earn a substantial income for the trust, it has to be said. You cannot get away from it, we have to look at that side of things."

The new day surgery unit, below ground level, has 30 trolley spaces which will replace the 23 bays at Brighton General Hospital.

It will mean even more minor surgical procedures can be carried out daily.

On the same floor is the new mortuary, equipped with three post-mortem tables and a viewing area for students.

It will replace the small and inadequate room next to the existing pathology department which is currently used.

The bottom floor of Block A is given over to the central sterile supply department, which will sterilise and supply equipment for all trust services.

In addition to the construction of Block A, several departments within the hospital are being upgraded as part of the development project.

The expanded accident and emergency department is due to open in July and the outpatients' department has already been extended. A new diabetes clinic opened last month.

If the money is available, the next phase of the development will see the transfer of the children's unit from the Royal Alexandra and the construction of two new clinical departments, possibly on top of the multi-storey car park.

If all goes to plan and funding is agreed, work could begin late next year.

The third and final phase would be to introduce a specialist neurosciences centre with its own specialist intensive care unit as well as an extension of the trauma department.

Meanwhile, the first and most difficult stage is complete.

Centralising services may invoke suspicions of cost-cutting, but the trust insists that the real driving force behind the project is improved efficiency, leading to better patient care.

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