Brighton MP hands hospital petition to Health Secretary

Brighton Kemptown MP Simon Kirby has handed in a petition urging the government to release £420 million to modernise the Royal Sussex County Hospital.

Mr Kirby presented the petition to Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt at his Department of Health offices in Whitehall in London at lunchtime today (Tuesday 15 October).

The Conservative MP collected almost 1,000 signatures from constituents for his campaign to persuade the government to release the money to give Brighton a hospital fit for the 21st century.

Simon Kirby and Jeremy Hunt

While the hospital serves Brighton and Hove it also takes patients from across Sussex but some wards pre-date the era of Florence Nightingale.

Mr Kirby said: “I am very pleased that my petition collected almost 1,000 names and it shows how important the Royal Sussex County Hospital is to people in my constituency.

“I have been working closely with the Health Secretary and the Chancellor to make the case for this much-needed funding and they have always been very receptive to the points that I have made.

“I am grateful to Jeremy Hunt for meeting with me today to take receipt of the petition and I am sure that the strength of feeling the petition conveys will resonate with him.

“I want to thank all of my constituents who took the time to contact me over this issue and I assure them that I will continue to fight for the new hospital Brighton deserves.”