The Barry Building on the Royal Sussex County Hospital campus was built in 1828 and the adjoining Jubilee Building in 1887.
These buildings currently contain medical, elderly care, cancer, infectious diseases and HIV inpatient wards as well as the main imaging department and the cardiac investigations service. The buildings are ageing, cramped and providing our patients with even the most basic levels of privacy and dignity is extremely difficult.
Currently less than 5% of the beds in the Barry Building are in single rooms. The rest are in six bed bays or on open wards. There is only one toilet available for every four patients and they often have to walk across wards and corridors to reach their nearest toilet or bathroom facilities.
The wards in both buildings are small (some examples are shown in the photos below). They are dificult to run and the beds are too close together. This presents problems in maintaining good infection control practice and can make it difficult to get vital, modern equipment to patients' bedsides.
Our planned redevelopment will address all of these issues. The new development will have 75% of the beds on the medical and elderly care wards provided in single, en-suite rooms. The rest will be in single gender four bed bays, each with its own toilet and bathroom. The wards will offer the best possible environement for patients for both healthcare and privacy and dignity.
