A damning catalogue of errors in the country’s biggest hospital trust has been revealed by its own staff. Hundreds of workers at Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust have told bosses they witnessed blunders, near misses or other incidents which could have hurt patients or staff.
The revelations came in a survey of more than 400 workers – including doctors and nurses – which laid bare a culture of widespread bullying. They also appear to be at odds with the trust’s official figures which show just a handful of “serious untoward incidents” – events that could cause serious harm to patients, staff or the public – were reported last year.
The survey revealed that 86% of staff had witnessed at least one incident in the past month, which could have led to an injury.
Charles Harrity, of the GMB union, said: “I am not surprised by the results of this survey, which indicate just how much pressure and stress staff are working under. These are issues we have raised time and time again but management have stilll not got to grips with them.”
A detailed action plan has been developed to adddress each area of concern.
