A STRUGGLING hospital trust is “buddying up” with its outstanding neighbour as part of a radical move to improve its performance.

Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust will be working with Western Sussex Hospitals NHS Trust to learn from its experience and expertise.

The agreement will see Brighton and Sussex chief executive Gillian Fairfield and chairman Antony Kildare replaced by their Western Sussex counterparts at Marianne Griffiths and Mike Viggers in April.

Other members of the Western Sussex leadership team will also provide support.

Both trusts have stressed the move is not a merger or a take-over and they will continue to work as two separate bodies.

Brighton and Sussex has been placed in special measures for both care and finances and recently revealed it was heading for a £60 million deficit at the end of March.

It was branded inadequate by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) following an inspection earlier this year.

Western Sussex was given an outstanding rating by CQC inspectors this year and is forecasting a surplus of more than £3 million.

Over the next six months Brighton and Sussex will be getting support from its neighbour as it works to come out of special measures.

At the same time an improvement oversight group, comprising the leadership of both trusts, will be set up to oversee the development of the longer-term arrangement from April.

Mrs Griffiths said: “The challenges faced by staff at Brighton and Sussex have been well documented and I’m very pleased that NHS Improvement has asked us to help overcome them.

“There are no easy answers but it is the people working in the hospitals in Brighton and Haywards Heath who are best placed to find and implement the solutions their patients need.

“We know the organisation has many great people in it already and the role of the team at Western Sussex will be to give them the tools, skills and support to make improvements.”

Mrs Fairfield, who started as interim chief executive in May, said the trust had begun making improvements since its CQC and significant progress had been made.

She said: “I see this as an extremely positive step in Brighton and Sussex’s journey to be the thriving and excellent organisation that we all want it to be and we look forward to working closely in the coming months with our colleagues at Western Sussex.”

The news has largely been welcomed by staff at Brighton and Sussex with one worker telling The Argus: “This is a great idea and hopefully it will make a real difference to morale.”

Healthwatch Brighton and Hove has cautiously welcomed the news but raised concerns it might lead to an eventual merger.

WHAT THE CHANGES WILL MEAN FOR THE TWO TRUSTS

THERE is little doubt this is going to be a major challenge.

For the next six months senior members of the Western Sussex Hospitals team will be working with Brighton and Sussex to offer advice and guidance on how to make the improvements needed to get the trust out of special measures.

From April 1 Western Sussex chief executive Marianne Griffiths will become chief executive for a planned three-year period.

She will have to divide her time between five different sites which will be a huge challenge but she is confident it can be managed.

Mrs Griffiths has secured extra funding from NHS Improvement to help her carry out the immediate changes needed, including establishing the Patient First programme for staff which she believes was instrumental in helping her trust get outstanding status earlier this year.

She has also arranged for a more reasonable and realistic period of time to sort out Brighton’s financial problems.

The first job will be to get Brighton out of special measures and the second will be to look at its accident and emergency service, whose problems with delays and long waits is well documented.

The third will then be to get an infrastructure in place so the first green shoots of financial recovery will be seen.

The aim will then be to leave Brighton and Sussex to carry on making improvements under its own steam.