University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust told it must improve

A hospital trust has been told to "immediately improve" its maternity and surgical services.

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) made unannounced inspections in September and October at four of the hospitals run by University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust.

Inspectors raised concerns about staff shortages, skills training and risk management.

The trust said it has taken "urgent action" to make improvements.

Maternity services were inspected at Worthing Hospital, St Richard's Hospital in Chichester, the Princess Royal Hospital in Haywards Heath and the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton where surgical services were also looked at.

At the trust's four maternity services, inspectors found departments "did not have enough staff to keep women and babies safe" and staff were "not up to date" with training.

Infection prevention measures in surgical services at the Royal Sussex County Hospital were "not consistently applied" and managers were not running services well, inspectors noted.

Nigel Acheson, the CQC's deputy chief inspector for hospitals, said midwives told inspectors they had too many women to care for at one time in the antenatal, post-natal and triage area and "were frightened of missing a deteriorating woman or baby".

The report also said morale was low and often staff "did not have time to report incidents".

The ratings for maternity services at Worthing Hospital and St Richard's Hospital dropped from outstanding to requires improvement, while the overall rating for maternity services at Princess Royal Hospital dropped from good to requires improvement.

Meanwhile, surgery and maternity at the Royal Sussex County Hospital both dropped from good to inadequate overall.

This was the first CQC inspection since Western Sussex Trust merged with Brighton and Sussex NHS Trust in April.

Marianne Griffiths, CEO of the trust, said: "We take the CQC's findings very seriously. As soon as we received the inspectors' initial feedback we acted immediately to make urgent improvements to ensure we continue to provide safe care."

She said a combination of "extraordinary levels" of pressure on services plus high rates of staff absence related to Covid had left rotas "extremely stretched".

The board had recently confirmed funds for 40 new midwives and obstetricians to tackle staffing issues.

The trust also said it would be recruiting more qualified nurses from overseas and partnering with the Universities of Brighton and Chichester to train more nursing and medical staff to work in its hospitals.

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