Green Councillors today expressed their concern over the news that the Royal Sussex County Hospital is to be placed into special measures by the Care Quality Commmission.
Earlier this month the hospital was placed on “black alert” due to a shortage of beds. Greens have warned of a looming crisis for the hospital ahead of the busy winter period.
With ongoing and savage cuts to social care and chronic underfunding of the NHS, patients are seeing ever-increasing waiting times in A&E and for routine operations.
Councillor Dick Page, Green spokesperson on the Health & Wellbeing Board, said:
“This is a very worrying development which comes after months of ongoing issues with the hospital trust. It’s clear that the measures that have been taken to date simply aren’t working, and if decisive steps aren’t taken now we could see a massive crisis over the busier winter months.
“That’s why were calling on the chair of the city’s Health & Wellbeing board, Labour Councillor Dan Yates, to seek urgent reassurances from the hospital trust and CCG at the next board meeting that there is a clear and meaningful action plan to bring the hospital out of special measures as soon as possible.
“In the longer-term, more hospitals are going to find themselves in difficulty unless the Government commits to adequately fund the NHS and social care to cope with our ageing population. It’s simply unacceptable that the Government can find billions to spend on nuclear technology, while our NHS collapses under the strain”.