Care Concerns within Sussex Hospital’s Neurosurgery and General Surgery Departments

Our medical negligence experts share their concerns following recent headlines stating a “gang culture” existed at a Sussex hospital, where many patients under the care of the neurosurgery and general surgery departments could have received negligent treatment.

It is reported that police are investigating at least 105 cases of alleged medical negligence at Royal Sussex County Hospital, which seemingly took place between 2015 and 2021. Neurosurgeon Mansoor Foroughi, and General Surgeon, Krishna Singh, both raised concerns during their time working for  University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust.

This followed a Care Quality Commission inspection prompted by whistleblowers which led to the Trust being downgraded from outstanding to requires improvement.

Inspectors found that staff were being let down by senior leaders and felt unable to raise concerns. In neurosurgery in particular, the service did not have enough staff, availability of equipment did not always support safe and effective care, staff did not feel supported and did not always work well together.

Medical negligence concerns were raised and ignored

Foroughi raised concerns about 19 deaths and 23 cases of serious medical negligence during his time working at the Trust between 2015 and 2021. He was sacked in 2022 for gross misconduct, but is challenging this decision and has taken the Trust to the employment tribunal.

According to the BBC, the trust “punished him because he raised safety concerns” (BBC).

Concerns raised include:

• One colleague was approved to carry out complex spinal surgery without proper training.
• Another colleague carried out procedures that led to a disproportionate number of deaths.
• A third colleague carried out private work whilst on call to the NHS, which is breach of the NHS Code of Conduct.

Singh, who was demoted in 2019 and is challenging this decision, raised concerns about rota changes, which essentially reduced the number of “safe” consultants on call. This change “promoted insufficiently competent surgeons, and cost-cutting measures increased complication rates and patient mortality” (BBC).

Concerns have been raised with regards to bullying and harassment from management in the general surgery department with reports that staff were told to “sit down, shut up and listen” in meetings. This was following a Trust commissioned investigation by the Royal College of Surgeons.

The investigation revealed that the impact on patients was significant with a “high volume of complaints” and “high rates of cancellations” for surgery.

Both Foroughi and Singh raised their concerns with the chief executive and chief medical officer of University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust. It took five years for the police to eventually start investigating in May 2023, following both surgeons’ claims that patients were dying unnecessarily.

The investigation

Sussex police have spoken with families and loved ones of 40 patients who died during surgery at the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton, to tell them their cases form part of this investigation. A further 65 cases of medical negligence are also being considered.

A note from our experts

From our experience, it is unusual for the police to become involved in investigating matters of alleged medical negligence. Therefore, the fact that there is an ongoing police investigation that spans a significant period of time and clearly involves many patients, is hugely concerning from a patient safety perspective. Our thoughts lie with all of the families affected by this.

It is not for us to comment upon the validity of the disciplinary actions taken against Foroughi and Singh. However, it is notable that the concerns they raised appear to be echoed independently by the Royal College of Surgeons and the CQC.

Hopefully, the leadership of the Trust will take on board the issues raised so far and any outcome to the police investigation and implement meaningful change that will restore patient safety, public trust and harmony amongst staff.

Talk to us if you have concerns

Our medical negligence team is here to help if you, or a loved one, are having concerns about treatment at this hospital or others. We specialise in neurosurgery and general surgery negligence claims and will provide the appropriate legal advice and guidance to get you the best outcome possible.