Royal Alexandra Hospital, Brighton

Royal Alexandra Hospital, Brighton
Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust
The new hospital from the southeast
Shown in Brighton and Hove
Geography
Location	Eastern Road, Brighton, Brighton and Hove, England, United Kingdom
Coordinates	50°49′08″N 0°07′01″W / 50.819°N 0.117°W / 50.819; -0.117Coordinates: 50°49′08″N 0°07′01″W / 50.819°N 0.117°W / 50.819; -0.117
Organisation
Care system	National Health Service
Funding	Government hospital
Hospital type	Specialist
Patron	Princess Alexandra, The Honourable Lady Ogilvy
Services
Emergency department	Yes Accident & Emergency
Speciality	Children's hospital
History
Founded	1868 (at Western Road)
Links
Website	http://www.bsuh.nhs.uk/hospitals/our-hospitals/royal-alexandra-childrens-hospital/
Lists	Hospitals in England

The Royal Alexandra Hospital for Sick Children is a children's hospital located within the grounds of the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton in the English county of East Sussex. It provides outpatient services, inpatient facilities, intensive care and a 24-hour emergency care service for children referred by GPs and other specialists.

The Royal Alexandra Hospital for Sick Children originally stood on Dyke Road in the Montpelier area of Brighton. Local architect Thomas Lainson's red-brick and terracotta building, in the Queen Anne style, was opened by the Prince and Princess of Wales in 1881. It remained in use for more than a century before being replaced by a new building at the main Royal Sussex County Hospital site. The new facility opened in June 2007, and has won architectural awards for its innovative design.

The future of the Dyke Road site has been uncertain since the move to the new premises was first considered in 2001; Lainson's buildings and their later additions were threatened with demolition until 2009, when a developer was refused planning permission to replace the hospital with flats. Brighton & Hove City Council's latest planning briefs state that any redevelopment of the site should incorporate Lainson's original building.

Hospitals dedicated to the treatment of children have existed in England since the mid-19th century: the first opened in Liverpool in 1851. By this time, Brighton was a rapidly growing town with a history of proactively establishing social, educational and medical institutions. In response to a meeting at Brighton Town Hall on 23 June 1868, local doctor R.P.B. Taaffe founded the town's first children's hospital, the Brighton Hospital for Sick Children, at 178 Western Road on 3 August of that year. Two years later, it moved to the former Church Hill School, a disused building on Dyke Road; Bishop of Chichester Richard Durnford conducted the reopening ceremony on 14 July 1871. Although this had 20 beds in the main ward, an eight-bed ward for bone disorders and an isolation ward for infectious diseases, within ten years it was felt necessary to move to another larger building.