East Sussex Hospitals NHS Trust has experienced an embarrassing situation when it has failed to protect the safety and welfare of people who use its services and the Care Quality Commission has decided to take an enforcement action against the hospital.

Earlier in February, the CQC had performed a routine review of all five hospitals which make up the East Sussex Hospitals NHS Trust. The inspectors found insufficient staff availability to offer the best patient care. Besides shattered standards, they found that inaccurate and incomplete patient records and patients were not able to avail proper risk assessments, leading unsafe care.

And now a surprise visit in May has exposed that patients did not avail any assistance to eat or drink something. However, the inspectors have also acknowledged some improvements.

"No regulator can guarantee to stop all unacceptable behaviour - it is the job of the providers and staff to make sure it doesn't happen in the first place”, said a CQC Spokesman. "No system of regulation, however thorough, can stop abuse. But you can build systems to identify risks of harm, based on information from a range of sources, and react to these risks to try to reduce the likelihood of poor care”.