NHS Improvement has today announced that it has asked Western Sussex Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (WSHFT) to help staff at Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals (BSUH) improve the quality, safety and financial sustainability of services there.
BSUH NHS Trust was inspected by CQC earlier this year in June and their Quality Report, which can be seen here: http://www.cqc.org.uk/provider/RXH, found BSUH to be Inadequate.The Trust was put into financial special measures after it informed NHSI in October that it was no longer credible to report that it would meet its agreed end-of-year deficit of £15.5m.
Whilst WSHFT was rated Outstanding by CQC following its inspection in earlier this year June, it can be seen here: http://www.cqc.org.uk/provider/RYR. WSHFT is one of only five acute trusts in England to be rated Outstanding by the Care Quality Commission and shares similar geographic and demographic pressures as its neighbour BSUH.
The aim of the initiative is to support BSUH to make the improvements needed to emerge successfully from Special Measures on both quality and finance.
Tim said:
"The news that Western Sussex Hospitals Trust has been parachuted in to take over management of the failing Brighton Hospital Trust is a real vote of confidence in the management of Worthing, Southlands and St Richard’s Hospitals.
"It is hoped that Chief Executive Marianne Griffith and her team can work some of the magic on Brighton that has led Western Sussex to be one of only 5 acute hospital trusts rated ‘outstanding’ in the whole of England.
"The longstanding problems with Brighton have been having an increasing knock-on effect on West Sussex and needed sorting out, just so long as Marianne does not take her eye off the ball with keeping Worthing as one of the country’s top hospitals."
You can find more details here: http://www.westernsussexhospitals.nhs.uk/news/sussex-patients-set-benefit-innovative-new-hospital-leadership-model/