Dixon Au

Dixon Au was born in Hong Kong in 1979. Dixon is Property Management Services Project Manager at Brighton & Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust (BSUH) and has been an NHS employee since 2004.

Dixon talks about his career as a project officer and projects he has worked on in the NHS. He talks about pay not being equivalent to the work involved yet people stay because of their passion for the NHS, even though workloads are highly pressured.

He talks about the biggest pressures in his job (at the time of recording) being the master planning of the new Royal Sussex County Hospital.

Dixon recounts his daily work routine, which involves a wide range of people, liaising with users and teams, reviewing short to medium term plans for services and improving performance.

Dixon recounts some of his impressions of working at Royal Sussex County Hospital, in particular the architecture of the Barry Building, the Grade I listed Chapel and Thomas Kemp Tower.

He reflects on the original ethos of free care in the NHS and how service delivery has expanded so much (social and mental health, surgical, community, etc.) it has become difficult to achieve to the best possible.

He says his greatest achievement is managing the Sussex Eye Hospital redevelopment (opened in 2016), which he worked on from beginning to completion.

Recorded on 25/09/2019 in Brighton, UK.

Christopher Davidson

Dr Christopher Davidson was born in Ilkley, Yorkshire in 1944.

Christopher talks about his family and reasons for going into medicine, which was influenced by coming from a family of doctors, including both parents. His family never pushed him into the profession, but he saw how fulfilling their careers were.

As children he and his two sisters would spend a great deal of time in the hospital; and while his sisters ran a mile from the profession, it has suited him very well.

He talks about his training at Cambridge, the developments in medicine across his career, working across the country in different settings including at Royal Sussex County Hospital.

Recorded on 04/12/2019 in Brighton, UK.

Gary Steen

Gary Steen was born in Brighton in 1964. He has been working in IT with Royal Sussex County Hospital since 1990.

Gary talks about how he came to work in IT, originally training as an electrician, followed by a role in IT at American Express for five years before moving to London for three years.  He returned to Brighton in 1990, for a small IT role at Brighton General Hospital.

Gary speaks about the history of the first computer system being introduced in the early 1980s before he started working in the NHS. The first extensive one was the patient registration system around 1984 (made by ICI), which was housed in two rooms, used a lot of power and had minimal storage; the hard drive was the size of a washing machine. In the early 1990s, only some doctors had PCs.

He talks about the different systems that have been used over the years, the replacement of systems, and the different roles he has had during his employment at Royal Sussex County Hospital.

Recorded on 16/12/2019 in Brighton, UK.

Peter Saunter

Peter Saunter started working at Royal Sussex County Hospital at the age of 57. His wife also came to work there for a period, when she was volunteering for the WRVS (the Royal Voluntary Service welfare branch). The camaraderie between the porters, and between the porters and other staff, from nurses to surgeons, are key themes in Peter’s interview. Several memories describe funny incidents involving staff and porters, and in one, Peter talks about a patient who laughed so hard they fell out of bed.

Peter had a telescope that his colleagues, even surgeons, used to survey the surrounding area. He describes how consultants and surgeons looked after the other staff as well as their patients – on one occasion, a surgeon diagnosed a surgery that Peter needed while busy with a patient, and consultants were generally very kind to staff when they were ill.

In 1984, at the time of the Brighton bombings, Peter ran the crew of porters. Afterwards, he received a letter from Margaret Thatcher thanking him for what he did during the bombing incident.

Peter’s only complaints was about the food, which he says was not very nice – if he were in charge, this is the first thing he would change.

Ruby Grimshaw (in two parts)

Ruby Grimshaw (born 1939) worked as a Physiotherapist and later Superintendent Physiotherapist at Royal Sussex County Hospital 1962-2004. During this period, she also worked in Switzerland and Hong Kong, and ran antenatal classes until the cuts to services in the 1990s. Her interview is rich in detail of her work experience, differences and developments in treatment during her career, reflections on what her work meant to her, and the difference in how physiotherapists are trained then and now.

Ruth Simmons

Ruth Simmons (born 1954) gave birth at the Royal Sussex County Hospital in 1980, and talks about the days leading up to the birth of her second child, and her stay at the hospital. Including a description of prenatal care, her experiences during labour, and what it was like staying at the hospital. Plus the difference in the amount of paperwork you had to do and the relative lack of choices in comparison with the present day. Ruth is now a volunteer at the hospital, and describes what that means to her.

Ted Knight

Ted Knight (born 1933) worked for Brighton Corporation Water Works for 42 years, with Royal Sussex County Hospital being one of his main sites. Ted also attended the hospital as a patient on three occasions; for a back injury and kidney troubles in the 1960s, and for an eye injury in the 1970s. He speaks very highly of the care and RSCH nurses in his interview.

Utility room, Royal Alexandra Hospital, c. 1910

A utility room at the Royal Alexandra Hospital, which is now part of Royal Sussex County Hospital. Cleaning materials and equipment are shown, giving an idea of how hospitals and hospital equipment was cleaned and sterilised at the time. (c, 1910). The labels on the row of bottles for chemicals and cleaning fluids on the shelf cannot be read, but they would have included carbolic acid and bleach derivatives. Steam sterilisation was introduced in the late 19th century and gradually became widely used for surgical instruments.

Image courtesy of Brighton & Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust.

Surgical theatre, c. 1910

Photograph of an empty surgical theatre at the Royal Alexandra Hospital, now part of Royal Sussex County Hospital, c. 1910. The large windows emphasise the role that sunlight played in good hospital care at the time. The bare surfaces we see on simple frames with coasters – so that they could be moved as needed – allowed for sterilisation.

Image courtesy of Brighton & Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust.

Paediatric ward, Royal Alexandra Hospital

This photograph of a paediatric ward at the Royal Alexandra Hospital, which is now a part of the Royal Sussex County Hospital, shows a row of cots exposed to sunlight from a row of large windows, a chest of drawers with wooden toys, and a nurse in the distance. The photo is taken in the inter-war period, before the discovery of penicillin, and sunlight was an important part of fighting tuberculosis and other infectious diseases.

Image courtesy of Brighton & Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust.