- NHS hospital
Conquest Hospital
Assessment report published 12 November 2026
Contents
Ratings
Our view of the service
Date of assessment 24 to 25 February 2026.
Conquest Hospital provides a range of NHS hospital services. At this assessment, we looked at urgent and emergency services. We assessed all quality statements across all key questions.
Conquest Hospital is in the town of Hastings and geographically serves the population of East Sussex, along with Eastbourne District General Hospital in Eastbourne and other community hospital locations. It forms part of East Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust. Conquest Hospital offers a 24-hour, 7-day-a-week urgent and emergency service.
At this assessment we assessed 1 assessment service group, urgent and emergency services. We rated urgent and emergency services as requires improvement. Please see reports from previous inspections to get a full picture of the services at Conquest Hospital. The location rating for Conquest Hospital has changed from outstanding to good overall.
At this assessment of urgent and emergency services, we found 4 breaches of regulations in relation to safe care and treatment, staffing, dignity and respect, and good governance.
We identified overcrowding within the department, which resulted from patient flow challenges across the wider hospital. This compromised patients' dignity and privacy. The service did not consistently staff the paediatric emergency department in line with national standards. Patients with mental health needs were not always cared for in a safe and therapeutic environment while awaiting assessment and treatment.
Cardiology pathways did not always operate effectively, which created potential delays and affected the coordination of care.
Despite these challenges, staff treated patients with kindness and compassion. However, medicines management was not always safe, and governance processes were not consistently effective in identifying and addressing risks.
Leaders were capable and highly committed, but they were not always able to identify and manage risks effectively.
The rating for urgent and emergency services has been combined with ratings of the other services from the last assessments. The overall rating for Conquest Hospital has changed from outstanding to good.