Police investigate deaths at Brighton hospital after negligence allegations

Police are investigating about 40 hospital deaths over allegations of medical negligence made by two consultant surgeons who lost their jobs after blowing the whistle about patient safety

- Matthew Weaver

The allegedly botched operations occurred at Royal Sussex County hospital (RSCH) in Brighton, part of University Hospitals Sussex NHS trust , when it was run by a management team hailed as the best in the NHS by former health secretary Jeremy Hunt.

Last week detectives from Sussex police wrote to the trust’s chief executive, George Findlay , confirming they had launched a formal investigation into “a number of deaths” at the RSCH. They were investigating allegations of “criminal culpability through medical negligence” made by “two separate clinical consultants” at the trust, the letter said.

It is understood about 40 deaths occurred between 2015 and 2020 after alleged errors in general surgery and neurosurgery departments. Both whistleblowers alleged the trust failed to properly investigate the deaths and learn from the mistakes made.

One of the whistleblowers, Krishna Singh , an eminent surgeon, claimed he lost his post as the trust’s clinical director after raising concerns about patient safety citing some of the deaths now under investigation.

He claimed cost-saving changes at the hospital “were driven through that were grossly unsafe and ultimately drove up complication rates and patient mortality”. Singh claimed the trust promoted insufficiently competent surgeons and overused insufficiently skilled locums.

His employment tribunal hearing against the trust was adjourned this week because of the police investigation.