The Royal Sussex County Hospital is an acute teaching hospital in Brighton, East Sussex. It is part of the University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust.
The hospital and trust are well known for scandal, controversy and medical negligence. It has also been accused of bullying whistle-blowers and turning a blind eye to serious complaints about nursing staff.
University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust was placed in category four, receiving a score of 2.82 and placing 117th out of 134 trusts. This trust includes the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton.
A Sussex NHS trust has been rated among the worst performing in England.
Doctor must be chaperoned with female patients. Jeremy Stuart Clark is a general surgeon specialising in keyhole surgery at University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust (UHSx) and the Nuffield Health Brighton Hospital. BBC News 27th April 2026
Sussex Police expand NHS death inquiry to heart patients. “…police are now starting to review a small number of cases relating to cardiothoracic surgery at the Royal Sussex County Hospital.” – BBC News 15th April 2026
Inspectors flag up safety concerns at Brighton hospital. The Care Quality Commission (CQC), have threatened to take enforcement action after their visit to the Royal Sussex County Hospital, in Kemp Town, unless things improve rapidly – Brighton and Hove News 17th December 2025
New boss takes charge of trust that runs Brighton hospitals – Brighton and Hove News 15th December 2025
Family sues Royal Sussex County Hospital over father’s death – BBC News 2nd October 2025
Call to suspend Royal Sussex County Hospital medics under police investigation – BBC 26 August 2025
The care Ms Smart’s mother received from the University Hospitals Sussex NHS Trust at the Royal Sussex County hospital is being investigated by Sussex Police as part of Operation Bramber, which is looking into at least 200 cases of alleged medical negligence.
Surgeon banned by private practice is working for NHS – Mr Lamah continues to operate as a colorectal surgeon at the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton.
New details emerge of “appalling” surgical practices at Royal Sussex – 2nd October 2024
Details are emerging of some of the “appalling” practices being used by surgeons whose work is under police investigation at a scandal-hit hospital.
One surgeon at the Royal Sussex County Hospital has been revealed as having used his own penknife – which he used to cut fruit for his lunch – to open up a patient’s chest in an operation.
Slater Gordon Lawyers
Surgeon operated with penknife he uses to cut up lunch – BBC News
Gang culture at neurosurgery department, doctor alleges.
Neurosurgeon Mansoor Foroughi is one of two surgeons who alleges patients were put at risk at University Hospitals Sussex, where Sussex Police are investigating 105 cases of alleged medical negligence.
BBC News 12th April 2024
England’s worst maternity units named and shamed. Yet for eight parts of England, including Brighton, Derby and Luton, MailOnline can reveal the only maternity unit is rated ‘inadequate’ – the Care Quality Commission’s (CQC) worst possible score.
At The Royal Sussex County Hospital, CQC inspectors warned call bells would run for up to ten minutes before staff members responded. Emergency buzzers used to call a doctor could not be heard in some areas.
The hospital’s unannounced inspection was carried out following patient complaints and whistleblowing staff.
Royal Sussex County Hospital – Daily Mail
Royal Sussex County Hospital CQC Inspection
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) is the independent regulator of health and adult social care in England.
The CQC make sure health and social care services provide people with safe, effective, compassionate, high-quality care and we encourage care services to improve.
The CQC monitor, inspect and regulate services and publish what we find. Where we find poor care, we will use our powers to take action.
- Safe – Requires improvement
- Effective – Requires improvement
- Caring – Outstanding
- Responsive – Requires improvement
- Well-led – Requires improvement
Full CQC inspection report for Royal Sussex County Hospital
Date of inspection visit: 1st to 3rd August 2023 / Published 14th February 2024
‘Let down by a culture of fear’
The NHS Trust that runs hospitals in Sussex has been stripped of its ‘outstanding’ status by its health watchdog and has been downgraded to ‘requires improvement’.
The Care Quality Commission sent in inspectors after whistleblowing concerns were raised by staff themselves.
There are changes, too, for individual hospitals with Brighton’s Royal Sussex County going from ‘good’ to ‘inadequate’ and the Princess Royal at Haywards Heath going from ‘good’ to ‘requires improvement’.
Inspectors said staff and patients were “being let down” by senior leaders who appeared “out of touch” with what was happening on wards and in clinical areas.
And staff who felt bullied or harassed felt pressured into “making unsafe decisions” amid a culture of fear.
ITVx
Care Quality Commission (CQC) and Bullying
Royal Sussex County Hospital bosses told to make urgent improvements.
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) said that the culture in surgery theatres at the Royal Sussex County Hospital was “still poor” and that staff did not feel they could raise concerns without “fear of reprisals”.
The unannounced visit last August found an “improving” culture on the wards where staff felt respected and supported but inspectors also heard examples of bullying in the surgery unit from 30 members of staff.
CQC bosses said that improvements had been made in some aspects of surgery at the hospital since inspections in 2021 and 2022, resulting in the rating of the unit being raised from “inadequate” to “requires improvement”.
The findings come as a review commissioned by University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust, which runs the hospital, reported instances of bullying and harassment and a “culture of fear” regarding the top leadership team earlier this month.
Brighton and Hove News
Medical Negligence
Sussex police consider manslaughter charges over dozens of hospital deaths
Police are investigating 105 cases of alleged medical negligence at the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton amid claims of a cover-up.
Specialist officers from the National Crime Agency and Sussex police are looking into cases of harm, which include at least 40 deaths, in the general surgery and neurosurgery departments between 2015 and 2021.
An email from Sussex police, released to The Times after a court application, revealed the huge investigation is looking into 84 cases connected to neurology and 21 related to gastroenterology. Most of the families are yet to be told that their case is among them.
Officers were called in by the senior coroner after she heard of allegations made by two consultant surgeons at University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust, one of the largest NHS organisations with 20,000 staff.
The trust has been accused of bullying the whistleblowers and attempting to cover up the circumstances of the deaths.
Mansoor Foroughi, a consultant neurosurgeon, was sacked for “acting in bad faith” in December 2021 after raising concerns about 19 deaths and 23 cases of serious patient harm.
Another whistleblower, Krishna Singh, a consultant general surgeon, claimed that he lost his post as clinical director because he said the trust promoted insufficiently competent surgeons, introduced an unsafe rota and had cut costs too quickly.
The Times 27th November 2023
Transgender Breast Milk
An NHS trust has claimed that breast milk from transgender women is just as good as that produced by a mother who has given birth.
The Telegraph reported that a leaked letter from a University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust medical director said milk produced by trans-women, with the help of drugs, is “comparable to that produced following the birth of a baby”.
The hospital became the first to use the gender-inclusive terms “chestfeeding” and “human milk” for its perinatal services in 2021. It created what it called the “first clinical and language guidelines supporting trans and non-binary birthing people”.
The Standard – University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust guidance attracts criticism from campaigners after being leaked in letter
Trust headquarters
University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust, Worthing Hospital, Lyndhurst Road, Worthing, West Sussex, BN11 2DH
Switchboard : +44 (0)1903 205111
Check out our articles on Sussex Police, Chief Constable Jo Shiner Sussex Police, R v Sussex Justices, HHJ Farquhar, HHJ Bedford and the highly questionable Sussex Family Justice Board.
The Ministry of Injustice is not the Ministry of Justice nor is it affiliated in any way with the justice system, legal profession, police or any other law enforcement agencies.
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