On 1 April 2017 the Board for Western Sussex Hospitals (WSH) NHS Foundation Trust took over the leadership and management of Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals (BSUH) NHS Trust, because BSUH had been put in Special Measures on the recommendation of the Care Quality Commission (CQC). CQC's report can be found here

The Board has now announced that it has been advised by CQC that a full inspection will take place on 24-26 September and 16-17 October 2018. It is the Board's position that BSUH has made all the necessary improvements to exit Special Measures. Newsletter can be found here

The evidence clearly shows that this is NOT the case given BSUH’s failure to address the poor race relations and consequent patient safety issues that exist. It is for this reason we are calling upon CQC to “do the right thing” when it undertakes its inspections and recommend that BSUH stays in Special Measures until it has adequately addressed the patient safety concerns and institutional racism.

The effects and consequences of BSUH's failure in this respect are many and wide-ranging. The following are some of the examples which are of most concern to us:

1. A restructure of the Soft Facilities Management department in late 2016 resulted in a large number of managers and supervisors from Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) backgrounds being demoted and replaced by inexperienced white British staff. This led to unsafe practices regarding the cleaning of the hospitals.

2. The new Board's failure to robustly tackle these issues despite the BME Network raising concerns with both BSUH and CQC, meant that unsafe practices continued throughout 2017. This may have contributed to the death of a patient, Mrs. Joan Blaber, who sadly died in September 2017, after apparently being given cleaning fluid to drink. The inquest into Mrs. Blaber's death is due to begin on 10 September 2018. Although the hospital's lawyers have admitted full responsibility for Mrs. Blaber's death, they have refused to pay for her family to be legally represented at the inquest. We await the coroner's findings and recommendations for the Trust following the inquest. More information can be found here

3. In 2017, the Board unfairly dismissed high-profile BME staff, including the Chair of the BME Network, Dr. Vivienne Lyfar-Cissé and two black surgeons. These cases are currently waiting to be heard at Employment Tribunal with the first one due to take place in September 2018. More information can be found here

4. In January 2018, a separate Employment Tribunal (ET) relating to incidents which took place in 2011-2012 found that Dr Lyfar-Cissé had suffered racial discrimination and victimisation at the hands of BSUH NHS Trust. Despite being criticised in the ET judgment, BSUH's response was that is was "disappointed" by the judgment. This is the third separate occasion that BSUH has been found or has admitted to have racially discriminated and/or victimised Dr. Lyfar-Cissé.
More information can be found here

5. In September 2016, an ET upheld the claim of a black surgeon, James Akinwunmi for unfair dismissal from the Trust. Despite the ET's criticism of several of Mr. Akinwunmi's white British colleagues regarding their behaviour and patient safety issues, the Trust failed to take any action against them and instead appealed the ET judgment. The Trust's appeal was dismissed in June 2017 but still no action has been taken against the consultants who are still in post despite the patient safety concerns. Appeal Judgment can be found here

6. In May 2018, when the Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) Network, which represents approximately 500 BME staff members at BSUH, challenged the Trust's failures to appropriately address the delivery of race equality, the Trust Board took the decision to cease all engagement with the BME Network and remove its resources. This is despite an existing Memorandum of Understanding, signed by the BME Network and the then Chief Executive, Duncan Selbie, in 2011 and a legally binding compromise agreement setting out the resources the BME Network is entitled to. Since then, the Trust has held two events, allegedly aimed at delivering race equality. However, the BME Network was not invited to take part in these events and the vast majority of attendees were white British. While the delivery of race equality must involve true partnership working and the active participation of white British staff, this cannot be to the exclusion of BME staff.
BME Network's Statement can be found here

7. In December 2017 a number of BSUH staff submitted a request to the National Guardian's Office for the NHS asking that a case review of BSUH be undertaken to address the issues surrounding the treatment of whistleblowers by the Trust. This request was made as part of a pilot project being undertaken by the National Guardian's Office, which while being an independent office, sits within CQC. The request outlined the detriment suffered by BME staff who had spoken up regarding patient safety issues. Following some correspondence, the staff were informed that their request had been accepted and after asking for a further update, were eventually notified that a case review would take place around Easter 2018. However, in early April, the staff were informed that the review would take place "in a few months' time" as the National Guardian wished to give the Trust time for improvement work to take effect. Despite the staff protesting that this was effectively collusion with the Trust, the case review has still not taken place.
A detailed article can be found here

Given the issues highlighted above and outlined in the linked articles, all of which remain outstanding, we believe that in the interest of BME staff and patients and for the safety of all patients, BSUH is not ready to exit Special Measures. We ask CQC to give serious consideration to the matters raised and to "do the right thing" by recommending that BSUH NHS Trust remains in Special Measures until these matters are addressed to the satisfaction of those who are impacted by them.

We hope you will support our call by signing our petition in solidarity.

Thank you for reading.