An inspection team of up to 20 people is expected to make at least one unannounced visit to a hospital in Brighton in the coming months.
The Royal Sussex County Hospital is preparing for the team from the Care Quality Commission (CQC) after a three-day inspection from Tuesday 9 April to Thursday 11 April.
The inspection led to a report in which the CQC said that it had inspected the hospital for six outcomes
- the care and welfare of people who use services
- respecting and involving people who use services
- assessing and monitoring the quality of service provision
- supporting staff
- staffing
- partnership working
The report said that the hospital was compliant in respect of staffing and partnership working but further action was needed in the other four areas.
Sherree Fagge, the chief nurse at Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust, which runs the Royal Sussex, said: “It was fair. It was a tough visit. It felt tough. But it was fair. The verdict on patient privacy and dignity was disappointing.”
She said that the six inspectors spoke not just to patients in the Accident and Emergency (A&E) Department but to patients elsewhere in the hospital who had been through A&E.
She gave an update to the trust board this morning (Monday 24 June) and said that teams of up to 20 people would turn up unannounced at the hospital in the coming months.
She said that future inspection visits could be out of hours, for example, at night or early in the morning.
And she added that some London trusts had had seven visits in seven months.
