No stars for hospital

BRIGHTON Health Care, which runs the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton, has been named as one of the 12 worst NHS hospital trusts in England.

The Trust, which also runs the Royal Alexandra Hospital for Sick Children, was awarded no stars in a national list of 170 acute Trusts published by the Government.

This compares with a praiseworthy two stars out of a possible three awarded to Eastbourne District General Hospital for its performance in terms of waiting lists, cancelled operations, capacity and cleanliness.

In a statement this week BHC chief executive Stuart Welling said: I am naturally disappointed in our performance in some areas but I believe local people can see that our staff are excellent and that the care they deliver is high quality.

I am under no illusions that the performance of the Trust and myself as chief executive is under the harshest spotlight.

I very much regret that some patients have not been able to access care as quickly as they or we would wish.

My colleagues and I have been working to address these issues with some success and are committed to turning this situation around.

On the problems of service, Mr Welling added: I believe this can partly be explained by the problems of recruitment difficulties and organisational capacity.

The south-east is an expensive place to live in and we have struggled to fill all our vacancies.

At the same time we have problems getting patients out of hospital once they are well - due to the dwindling number of available nursing home beds, the increasing elderly population and the financial pressures placed on our partners in social services.

He said there had already been reductions in the number of outpatients waiting.

The number of people waiting too long on trolleys in accident and emergency was still a cause for concern.

On the Trust s successes Mr Welling said: We are already seeing developments such as paediatric ambulatory care and fast-track clinics in gynaecology which are helping to ensure that more patients get the care they need, when and where they need it.

I would cite the new medical school, proposed formation of a new acute Trust for central Sussex, and approval to build a new renal unit, children s hospital and education centre as recent achievements worthy of note.