Hospital trust 'inadequate'

East Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust was given the lowest possible rating by the Care Quality Commission (CQC).

Inspectors found a “worrying disconnect” between senior managers and frontline staff and allegations of bullying.

They found that staff working at the hospital “reported a culture of bullying and harassment, and a leadership that was described as a ‘dictatorship’”.

One staff member told inspectors they felt “persecuted for speaking out”, while a manager told them they regularly had employees crying in their office due to bullying from a senior member of staff, who had boasted that they made anyone who spoke out leave and “then ensured that they didn’t get jobs elsewhere”.

The CQC said its inspection last September also raised serious concerns about the trust’s maternity, surgery and outpatients services.

It said a follow-up inspection last Wednesday and Thursday found that although there had been improvements, it was still concerned about cultural and leadership issues. MPs and campaigners have now called on senior members of the board to resign.

The trust runs Eastbourne District General Hospital and the Conquest Hospital in St Leonards and provides community services across East Sussex.

It has undergone a series of controversial changes in recent years, which has seen maternity and inpatient children’s services centralised at the Conquest.

Emergency and high-risk orthopaedic and general surgery is also now based at St Leonards.

The report found “staff were exhausted and under enormous pressure to deliver safe care in spite of chronic staffing shortages”.

Inadequate services at the maternity unit at the Conquest saw “risks to women and their babies from a poorly managed service”.

A rating of inadequate usually leads to trusts being put in special measures but a decision is being deferred until the findings of the latest inspection have been fully considered.

CQC chief inspector of hospitals, Sir Mike Richards, said: “Our recent inspection indicates there have been improvements in important areas for patients, but I am still concerned about cultural and leadership issues at the trust.

“We, alongside our partners, will continue to keep a close eye on the trust and will inspect again in due course to assess whether or not adequate progress is being made.”

Trust chief executive Darren Grayson said he was disappointed by the findings but welcomed the CQC’s feedback that improvements had been made.

He said: “The reports reflect the journey we are on as an organisation and the immense changes we have made over recent years. “I have always been honest about the fact that it isn’t an overnight job to change the culture of a large complex organisation such as ours and that there is always more that we can and want to do.”

GMB union representative Gary Palmer said the report came as no surprise and suggested it was time for senior board members to go.

He said: “The report confirming that staff have and still feel disengaged and undervalued suggests that possibly a change at the top is needed as certainly the changes elsewhere within the trust have not improved things at all.”

Lewes MP Norman Baker said: “The upper management of East Sussex Healthcare is letting down my constituents across the board, both in terms of the range of services offered at Eastbourne and now the safety of what’s left.

“There needs to be changes at the top to reverse this dangerous trend and that means the replacement of the chief executive and chairman.”

Liz Walke from the Save the DGH campaign group said: “Surely it’s now time for senior management to go?

“They have failed their patients and they have failed their staff.”

Hospitals hit by ratings

BOTH Eastbourne District General Hospital and the Conquest were rated inadequate overall by the Care Quality Commission.

In Eastbourne critical care was rated good, surgery and outpatients were both rated inadequate, and accident and emergency, medical care, children's services and end of life care were said to be requiring improvement.

Medical and critical care at the Conquest were rated as good, while improvements were required for accident and emergency, children's services and end of life care.

Surgery and maternity were both rated inadequate.

Inspectors found every service to be caring and compassionate and patients commented positively about the staff providing the care.