Flowers for patients at Brighton General Hospital

Brighton General Hospital in brief Brighton General Hospital stands on Elm Grove in Brighton, East Sussex, and is managed by Sussex Community NHS Trust. Its main Arundel building is Grade II listed. The site began as the Brighton Workhouse Infirmary, designed by George Maynard and opened in September 1867, and was extended with wards and pavilions in the 1880s.

During the First World War it served as the Kitchener Indian Hospital. It became Brighton Municipal Hospital in 1930 and joined the National Health Service in 1948 as Brighton General Hospital.

Why it matters before you order Despite its name, the trust says the site is no longer a hospital in the usual sense. It offers screening, diagnostic, treatment and rehabilitation services, including paediatrics, elderly care, diabetic care, back care, audiology, physiotherapy and specialist care for heart failure, multiple sclerosis and Parkinson's disease, but it has clinics and no overnight beds.

That means a patient who is staying in a ward is very unlikely to be at Elm Grove, and flowers sent there for an inpatient would not find them. If you are not sure, ask the patient or their family which hospital they are in and which ward, before you place the order.

Plans for the Elm Grove site In October 2018 the trust announced that it intended to sell most of the site for residential development. The plan is to convert the listed buildings for housing and to provide a new purpose-built community health facility on part of the site. Because the buildings are changing, appointment letters are the most reliable guide to where a clinic is held at any time.

The Royal Sussex County Hospital Most inpatients in Brighton are cared for at the Royal Sussex County Hospital, an acute teaching hospital run by University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust together with the Princess Royal Hospital. It has an emergency department, the Sussex Cancer Centre, cardiac surgery, maternity services and both adult and neonatal intensive care units.

It opened in 1828 as the Sussex County Hospital, in a building designed by Charles Barry, who later designed the Houses of Parliament. The tallest building is the Thomas Kemp Tower, which has 15 floors. The 3Ts redevelopment replaced the front half of the site, and the Louisa Martindale Building opened to patients on 12 June 2023.

How to send flowers to an inpatient Ring the ward first and ask whether fresh flowers are allowed. Intensive care units, including the adult and neonatal units at the Royal Sussex County Hospital, and certain specialist wards do not accept them. Give the patient's full name and the ward on the order, and choose a compact bouquet that will fit on a bedside locker.

Orders placed before 3pm Monday to Friday can be sent for next-day delivery, by a local florist or a courier.

Alternatives when flowers are not allowed A card, a small plant to keep for later, or a bouquet sent to the patient's home once they are discharged are all kind options. For someone attending a clinic at Elm Grove, flowers are not usually needed at the site, but a bouquet at home after a procedure can be a lovely way to cheer them up.

Checking before you order Names cause real confusion in this city, because the older hospital names and the newer buildings overlap. Ask the family for the ward name, the building and the ward telephone number, and quote them in the delivery notes. If the patient has already gone home, the home address is the best place for flowers.

Brighton and Hove addresses Brighton is a seaside city with many flats and shared houses, so add the flat number and a mobile number for the recipient. If you are sending to a relative who is staying in Brighton during a hospital stay, include a note to say who the flowers are from so the delivery is recognised at the door.

Did you know? Brighton General Hospital began as the Brighton Workhouse Infirmary, which opened in September 1867.