A Sussex hospital trust has been identified as having one of the highest risks of providing poor care in the country.

East Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust has been placed in the second highest group of hospitals which the Care Quality Commission (CQC) has concerns about.

The government watchdog compiled reports on more than 160 trusts, based on a wide range of information including death rates, reporting serious mistakes and whistleblowing staff.

Each trust was given a banding of one to six - with one being the highest risk and six the lowest.

East Sussex was among 44 trusts put in the two highest categories, meaning the CQC feels it might not be offering safe, good quality care to patients.


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Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust was put in the third risk category and Western Sussex Hospitals NHS Trusts, was placed in the sixth, or lowest risk.

The CQC is using the data for its new inspection regime of all NHS trusts by December 2015 and the six categories will prioritise which to inspect first.

All trusts will be given Ofsted-style school ratings of "outstanding", "good", "requires improvement" and “inadequate”.

East Sussex says it has already picked up on and dealt with the issues highlighted and it was confident there was no “adverse risk” to patient safety.

The findings have led to renewed calls from campaigners and MPs for the resignation of senior board members at the trust, which runs Eastbourne District General Hospital and Conquest Hospital in St Leonards.

The trust has already come under fire for its decision to downgrade maternity and children's inpatient services at Eastbourne and has also been struggling to keep its finances under control.

The CQC report said East Sussex had six risk areas, four of which were “elevated”.

These were for higher than expected death rates in patients who should be low risk and those undergoing treatment for problems affecting the arteries and veins.

The others were for potentially under-reporting patient safety incidents and whistleblowing alerts from staff.

The trust said it had already carried out its own investigation into mortality rates and was satisfied the deaths had been unavoidable.

A spokesman said: “The CQC have highlighted six risk indicators for the trust.

“The CQC is clear these should not be seen as confirmation of a problem but a cause to raise questions and undertake further scrutiny.

“We were already aware of these areas and have investigated them ourselves and will be working closely with the CQC to share the outcomes of these investigations.

“We are therefore confident there is no indication these identified areas mean there is an adverse affect on patient safety.

“We know we are not in the next wave of trusts to be inspected but we do anticipate an inspection at some point and we are confident they will find this organisation to be providing a good quality service to local patients.”

Liz Walke from the Save the DGH campaign said: “I think it is time board members admitted defeat and stepped down now and let others come in and take the trust on.”

Lewes MP Norman Baker said: “This report shows what I sadly already knew; 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.”

Gary Palmer from the GMB union said: “I hope the trust are going to act swiftly upon the CQC's pre-risk alert.

“The response of further scrutiny is not good enough. The trust must now look to improve both the highlighted indicators as well as any other areas which may already be a cause of concern at the trust.”