CQC tell Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust to improve services

The Care Quality Commission has told Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust that it must make significant improvements in the quality of its services at the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton and the Princess Royal Hospital, Haywards Heath.

Following an inspection in April, CQC has issued a Warning Notice identifying three main areas for improvement:

• The trust's systems to assess, monitor, and mitigate risks to people receiving care and treatment as inpatients and outpatients were not operating effectively. Patients were being put at unnecessary risk because they were not being dealt with properly or in appropriate areas.
• There were ineffective systems to ensure the care privacy and dignity of people attending both hospitals as inpatients and outpatients.
• The trust had been failing to ensure patients are seen in line with national timescales for diagnosis and treatment. In many services, too many patients were on waiting lists which failed to meet national standards.

Professor Edward Baker, Deputy Chief Inspector of Hospitals, said:

"People being treated at the Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust are entitled to a service that is consistently safe, effective and responsive to their needs. Throughout our inspection we found that patients were not receiving the quality of care that they are entitled to expect, or within the timescales required.

“There is limited evidence to show these issues were being addressed at board level. We have told the trust they must improve and treat patients in a timely manner with care, dignity and respect. We have given the trust until the 30 August to address these immediate concerns. We will continue to monitor the trust closely, and will be returning in the near future to check that the trust has got an improved grip on these immediate issues."

A report of the inspection will be published in due course.