NHS lift is so complicated it comes with instructions

The control panel in the lift in a newly-unveiled building has multiple buttons for the same floor

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A hospital visitor spotted a bizarre lift control panel - so complicated it needs its own set of instructions. Gabriel Kanter-Webber, 41, was visiting patients at the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton, East Sussex, when he clocked the unusual lift buttons.

The control panel in the lift - in the newly-unveiled Louisa Martindale Building - had multiple buttons for the same floor. Gabriel, a Rabbi, regularly visits congregants who are inpatients there - and said he was initially baffled by it.

He noticed a few days after he first visited that a sign had been added - to explain how to use the buttons. The sign reads: "If you are alighting at levels one, two, three or four, you will need to select both buttons for that floor and ensure that the red light is highlighted."

But Gabriel said that only complicated it further - as the picture on the instructions is different to the control panel in the lift. Gabriel, from Brighton, East Sussex, said: "Fortunately the wards I was visiting are on the upper floors, with only one button per number.

"So getting up is fine - but I still don't have a clue how to get back down to the bottom floor. The past few times I have got lucky and a member of staff was in the lift at the right time so I could escape.

"It's actually a really good building - but that's one part they just didn't think through!"

A UHSussex spokesperson said: “We’re sorry some of the operating instructions in a small number of our lifts are causing some confusion. We’re aware of the issue and are working to fix this as quickly as possible.”