NHS trust faces £128m deficit and hiring freeze

The Royal Sussex County Hospital is one hospital run by the University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust

A crisis-hit NHS trust has frozen recruitment of all non-clinical staff plus some senior medical roles and faces a budget deficit of £128m.

University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust has said it will not reduce its services, or expect staff to work harder but needs “to take urgent short term action to prevent our financial situation getting worse”.

Aside from its worsening financial position, the trust has faced a series of patient safety concerns in recent years including an ongoing police investigation into at least 105 cases of alleged medical negligence.

It has previously said its main priority is delivering "safe and effective care".

Non-clinical roles include managers, secretaries, porters, cleaners as well as security, catering and IT staff.

In an email to staff, chief executive Dr George Findlay said “immediate changes” were needed.

“The biggest of these is a temporary pause in recruitment to all non-clinical posts and some senior clinical ones.”

“In the last financial year, we spent more than we were paid. Over the first four months of this one, we’ve done so again,” Dr Findlay said.

Board papers show that without cuts, the trust faces an underlying deficit of £128.7m which it hopes to reduce to £26.5 million in the next financial year.

The chief executive admitted the organisation hired an extra 720 full-time-equivalent staff in the last year alone.

“This isn’t about asking people to work harder than you already do”, Dr Findlay said. “That’s neither fair nor sustainable.”

'Mafia-like'

In December four whistleblowers told the BBC that patients had died unnecessarily while others were "effectively maimed" while being cared for at the trust.

The whistleblowers also complained of a "Mafia-like" management culture.

The trust has previously said data does not reflect allegations of unnecessary deaths and that there is no evidence of a top-down toxic culture.

In February an investigation by the Royal College of Surgeons said one of the trust’s general surgery departments was operating in "a culture of fear" where bullying and harassment from management was rife.

Staff at Brighton's Royal Sussex County Hospital were told to "sit down, shut up and listen" in meetings, the report said.

Concerns were also raised around conditions for patients.

At the time chief executive Dr George Findlay said the report was "a really tough read" but that the trust was making improvements.