Merger of hospital trusts in Sussex given the go ahead

Plans to merge two hospital trusts in Sussex have been given the go ahead.

Western Sussex Hospitals NHS Foundation trust – which runs Worthing Hospital, St Richard’s Hospital in Chichester and Southlands Hospital – will be combined with Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals.

It will create a larger organisation called University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust (UHSussex).

It's hoped the merger, which comes into effect in April, will improve patient care and services.

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.

“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.”