'Outstanding' hospital now 'requires improvement'

East Surrey Hospital's latest inspection has seen it slip from "outstanding" to "requires improvement"

The East Surrey Hospital has had its rating lowered from "outstanding" to "requires improvement" by the NHS watchdog after its latest inspection.

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) said the hospital in Redhill had lowered individual ratings for several categories, following its visit in September 2024.

The CQC said that due to the report's publication being delayed by an internal restructuring at the watchdog, some improvements were already under way.

The Surrey and Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust said inspection had happened at a "particularly challenging" time.

The categories for "medical care" and "caring and responsive", both previous rated outstanding, were lowered to requires improvement and good respectively, leading to the drop in overall rating.

"Safe and well led" went from good to requires improvement.

"Caring and responsive" and "effective" kept their ratings of outstanding and good.

'Absolute priority'

Paul Simpson, acting chief executive of Surrey and Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust, said: "The CQC visited at a time that was particularly challenging.

"They recognised our inpatient services are caring, responsive and effective for patients - with our teams providing kind and compassionate care, with a clear vision for the future - but that the areas of safe and well-led required improvements.

"Delivering safe, high-quality care to our patients is our absolute priority, and the trust aspires to be an outstanding organisation across all its sites with services that patients feel safe and confident in, and we are committed to improving our ratings in every area.

"Since the visit East Surrey Hospital has made substantial changes.

"Many of the improvements raised by the CQC were in progress at the time of the inspection and have been further embedded.

"We have significantly strengthened our governance processes, launched a new 24/7 Freedom to Speak Up Service, and are now improving safety outcomes and enhancing our medicines safety policies and procedures."