Patients diverted amid Sussex hospital IT problems

Ambulances have been diverted away from Royal Sussex County Hospital

A hospital was forced to divert ambulance patients to other sites after being hit by problems affecting IT systems and phone lines.

Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton had been unable to accept emergency patients overnight, its trust said.

The trust asked patients to only phone 999 in a medical emergency.

The Princess Royal Hospital in Haywards Heath had also been hit by the issues, the trust tweeted on Sunday.

University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust said most IT and communications systems were being brought back online on Sunday afternoon.

A spokesman said: "That progress has meant that the agreement to divert ambulances away from Brighton and Haywards Health has been stopped.

"Despite the positive progress there is still work under way to reactivate some remaining systems, and to troubleshoot potential issues during the day (Sunday)," he said.

"Some are still to be reactivated, while others are working intermittently, or remain fragile."

He added the outages continued to affect some frontline teams.

"We ask that people continue to use NHS services wisely, and only use emergency services when necessary."

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