NHS Improvement has today announced that it has asked Western Sussex Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (WSHFT) to help staff at Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals (BSUH) improve the quality, safety and financial sustainability of services there.
This means that from 1 April 2017 WSHFT chief executive Marianne Griffiths will lead BSUH, as well as Western Sussex, supported by other members of the WSHFT executive team. BSUH will also have a new Trust Board, led by WSHFT Chairman Mike Viggers.
WSHFT is one of only five acute trusts in England to be rated Outstanding by the Care Quality Commission and shares similar geographic and demographic pressures as its neighbour BSUH.
The aim of the initiative is to support BSUH to make the improvements needed to emerge successfully from Special Measures on both quality and finance.
WSHFT Chief Executive Marianne Griffiths said: “The challenges faced by staff at BSUH 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.
NHS Improvement, WSHFT and BSUH will work together until April to implement the new management arrangements. The overarching aim will be to bring BSUH out of Special Measures on quality, improve A&E performance and put in place the infrastructure needed to enable long-term financial recovery.
To accelerate progress towards these objectives, NHSI has agreed additional funding for a number of important improvement initiatives and investment for a transformational programme.
Improvements in performance at BSUH will directly benefit patients and staff at Western Sussex too, in everything from reduced pressure on emergency services to higher standards of care across shared networks in specialties such as cancer, stroke and vascular care.
Although the WSHFT executive team will be spending some of their time at BSUH, the focus at Western Sussex will be very much on business as usual, with particular attention to maintaining the trust’s Outstanding performance through its Patient First improvement programme and driving the establishment of a new Accountable Care Organisation (ACO) to deliver more joined-up services across our area.
Chief Executive Marianne Griffiths added: “Helping our neighbour is the right thing to do. The robustness of our organisation and the quality of the people within it, will enable us to provide this support while continuing to improve our own services through Patient First.
“The people of Sussex deserve the best healthcare possible. We already know Brighton and Sussex has started work to address the areas of concern but we want to make sure that it has what it needs to continue to improve its services.
“We want local people not only to see improvements made quickly, but to see improvements that will provide them with quality services for years to come.