CQC publishes inspection reports on maternity and urgent and emergency care in Brighton

The Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton has been told it must make immediate improvements following a damning inspection report from the Care Quality Commission.

The health watchdog found serious pressures across the hospital, particularly in accident and emergency, where some patients were forced to wait more than 24 hours for a bed. Inspectors also raised concerns that patients were still being cared for in corridors, a practice they say breaches standards around privacy, dignity and safety.

The Care Quality Commission carries out regular inspections of NHS hospitals, assessing services across five key areas. These focus on whether care is safe, effective and caring, how responsive services are to patients’ needs, and whether organisations are well-led.

At the Royal Sussex, inspectors acknowledged that staff were working hard in challenging conditions, but said overcrowding and delays were having a significant impact on patient experience. They warned that urgent action is needed to ensure patients receive timely and appropriate care.

Hospital managers say steps are already being taken to address the issues raised. The Trust has confirmed that a new Acute Medical Unit has opened since the inspection, designed to ease pressure on A&E and improve patient flow through the hospital.

The report also looked closely at maternity services. Inspectors noted a slight improvement since the last inspection, with some positive changes to staffing and processes. However, they stressed that further work is required to ensure consistent standards of care and safety for mothers and babies.

University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust chief executive officer Dr Andy Heeps said of the ratings: “I’m pleased that people using our Brighton maternity service said staff treated them with compassion and kindness, and that the inspectors observed strong teamwork between doctors, midwives and other healthcare professionals.

“Concerns raised around caesarean sections and service management have been addressed since the visit in February with the introduction extra theatre capacity for election caesarean sections and some important senior appointments.

“Most of the issues the inspectors highlighted in the Brighton emergency department (ED) are familiar to us and have deeply rooted causes – the physical constraints of the department, the sheer level of need that staff have to respond to, and the difficulties of getting patients through our hospitals and discharged into the care of others.

“We have introduced a number of changes since the inspection last winter, to ease those pressures – for example we have recently opened a new medical assessment unit, we are trying to reduce the pressure in A&E by moving patients to other wards at an earlier point, and we have worked with partners to introduce the ‘HALO’ project, which assesses and cares for people outside hospital, potentially avoiding the need for vulnerable people to have to go to A&E in the first place.

“We have made significant changes, and over the summer there have been encouraging signs of progress. But we are under no illusion that the pressures on the local health system are real, and that there will be times when those pressures are hard for both patients and staff to cope with, particularly in emergency care.

“In the longer term, developments such as the Acute Medical Unit that opened this month and the £62 million Acute Floor Reconfiguration project will help us tackle the longstanding issues ED colleagues face around environment, experiences, capacity and flow.”