Sussex health trusts get green light for 'historic' merger
It'll see one body taking control of hospitals from Chichester to Brighton
A landmark merger between health trusts serving West Sussex and Brighton has been given the green light.
The merger will see the Western Sussex Hospitals and Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals trust combined into one, which bosses say heralds the 'dawn of a new future' for healthcare in the county.
Called the University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust (UHSussex), it will run seven hospitals across the county - including St Richard's Hospital in Chichester, Worthing Hospital and the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton, as well as sites in Shoreham and Haywards Heath.
Chief executive Dame Marianne Griffiths DBE said:
“This is a momentous day for healthcare in Sussex.
"As both a university hospital and foundation trust, we will have all the tools we need to develop outstanding services for our communities, offer exciting new career opportunities for our colleagues and continue to put local people at the heart of our decisions and plans.
“The recent success of both trusts has given us a great foundation to build on and we have seen the enormous advantages of working more closely together through the partnership we have built over the last four years.
"Those benefits have been underlined by the challenges of the COVID pandemic, and we know we can do great things together that we could not achieve alone."
Key meetings of the boards of directors at both trusts took place last week when it was agreed a formal application to merge should proceed.
WSHT and BSUH have been working together for four years under a joint management contract that expires on Wednesday (March 31st).
The latter emerged from special measures to earn a rating of good overall from the Care Quality Commission, while the former maintained its own Outstanding status and also became the first non-specialist acute trust to achieve Outstanding ratings in all key inspection areas.
University Hospitals Sussex will employ nearly 20,000 people across five main hospital sites in Sussex, with an operating budget of more than £1 billion.
The trust will be responsible for all district general acute services for Brighton and Hove, West and Mid Sussex and parts of East Sussex.
It will also provide specialised and tertiary services across Sussex and parts of the South East, including neuroscience, arterial vascular surgery, neonatology, specialised paediatric, cardiac, cancer, renal, infectious diseases and HIV medicine services.
Dame Marianne Griffiths added:
“We will continue to invest in all our vibrant hospitals and all the services we currently provide, including emergency, specialist, tertiary and trauma care.
"We will continue to work closely with academic partners like the Brighton and Sussex Medical School to build on our existing reputation as a centre of excellence for training and education.
"And our new five year clinical strategy will explore where we can make the best improvements for our patients and develop new services that ensure fewer people in Sussex have to travel elsewhere for high quality hospital care.”