Mr Robert Bertram, Chair of the charity the County Air Ambulance Trust, visited the Royal Sussex County Hospital yesterday. He presented a cheque for £500,000 to aid with the construction of the hospital’s new helideck, which is part of the 3Ts Redevelopment of the County Hospital. This is the first of two donations from the charity that will give £1,000,000 in total towards meeting the cost of the facility. It will be used to fund the ongoing helideck works in the coming financial year.
The 3Ts Redevelopment’s helideck project receives a cash boost from the County Air Ambulance Trust
The helideck will ensure that the most severely injured and unwell patients can be brought to the hospital by air ambulance without delay. A new lift, exclusively for transferring patients between the helideck and the Emergency Department, will be built as part of the project. Currently air ambulances have to land in East Brighton Park and patients have to be transferred to the hospital by road.
The helideck, which will open in the middle of 2018, is being constructed on the roof of the hospital’s existing Thomas Kemp Tower. As part of the presentation Mr Bertram joined Evelyn Barker, Brighton and Sussex University Hospital’s Accountable Officer; Duane Passman, Director of 3Ts; BSUH Non-Executive Directors, Kirstin Baker and Tony Kildare, and representatives of the construction company Laing O’Rourke for a tour of the site.
The preparations for the construction of the helideck are nearing completion and the steel work to support the deck will start arriving on stie in the next six weeks. The initial construction works will be at a low level and not visible from the ground, but by the latter part of the summer the support sructure will be clearly visible above the roof line.
The 3Ts Redevelopment will also provide significantly improved facilities for the Major Trauma Centre at the County Hospital. These will be in the redevelopment’s Stage 1 Building, the preparations for which are well underway. It will open its doors to patients in 2020.
3Ts Stage 1 site preparations 28.03.2017
