Brighton Bloom of youth
The Royal Alex looks to the future as staff and patients celebrate five years in new building
This month the Royal Alexandra Children’s Hospital celebrates five years since its new building was officially opened. The Royal Alex occupied its old Dyke Road site for more than 120 years. The look and feel of the new facilities are a world away from the way that the requirements of modern medicine were accommodated in the old wards. The Victorian feel has been well and truly replaced with something more fitting for the 21st century.
It is one of seven children’s hospitals across the country. Although many people in Brighton and Hove see it as our children’s hospital, it caters for a much wider catchment. It serves a population drawn from across the South East, including the Isle of Wight. While some young patients still see specialists at Great Ormond Street Hospital in London, increasingly the majority of children from Brighton and Hove as well as the surrounding area can now be treated locally by some of the leaders in their clinical fields as part of a £36 million centre of excellence.
The modest celebration this week is being hosted by Ryan Heal, the new chief executive of Rockinghorse, the children’s charity. Rockinghorse does more than raise funds for the Royal Alex. But it is best known for two longstanding relationships – the support provided to the Alex and to the Trevor Mann Baby Unit. Mr Heal regards these as central to the purpose and identity of the charity.
Over the past five years Rockinghorse has helped the Alex with various projects. They include the dedicated children’s accident and emergency department which was opened by the comedian, actor and writer Steve Coogan who lives in Brighton. It has funded the adolescent rooms which were opened by the Brighton hip-hop duo Rizzle Kicks. The charity has also fundraised for specialist projects such as the Gastro-Intestinal and Nutrition Clinical Investigation Unit, which supports the Royal Alex in offering pioneering paediatric care.
The hospital is not resting on its laurels. Despite the tough financial climate, innovation is taking place. The links with the relatively new Brighton and Sussex Medical School are deepening and these are expected to bring further benefits. Not least, a younger and more tech-savvy generation of medics and support staff who are looking at ways to use the latest technology to save children’s lives and give survivors better a quality of life.
The Royal Alex has a huge reservoir of goodwill, particularly in the Brighton and Hove area. But Ronald McDonald House, at the top of Abbey Road, shows that the goodwill reaches further afield. The eight bedroom property provides somewhere for the families of patients to stay and get some rest but still be close to their child. The charity behind it also funded the ten beds for parents and carers on the top floor of the new building.
In 2018 the children’s hospital will be 150 years old. It has operated under the Royal Alex name since the move to Dyke Road in 1881, honouring the Princess of Wales – later Queen Alexandra – who officially opened the much-loved old building. It cost £10,500 – one estimate puts the sum at £785,000 in today’s money. The builder and developer Taylor Wimpey has recently started to market the one, two and three bedroom flats being built on the site. They are likely to sell for more than £300,000 each.
Many of the decisions about the hospital move and the flats being built there were the subject of long and hard debate. The new and old buildings, the care being provided and the children being treated all arouse strong emotions. There will be more change and more advances and more debate. And at the same time many people, like those who support Rockinghorse, will be working hard to provide the best for some of our most vulnerable children.
