Surgery Announcement

NHS Sussex continues to work with local partners to ensure continuity of care for patients registered with Hailsham Medical Group (HMG) following recent actions taken by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) and decisions we have taken to ensure a stable and sustainable future for primary care services in the town.

The CQC carried out an unannounced inspection of the practice on 7 Aug 2025, which led to the imposition of conditions on the registration of the partners. Issues highlighted by the CQC related to safe care and treatment, governance and staffing.

In order to support the practice and address the issues raised by the CQC, NHS Sussex worked at pace to engage  Premium Primary Care (PPC),

(PPC), which is providing on-site and in-person guidance and advice, particularly around clinical oversight, to staff working at HMG until 31 March 2026. A multi-disciplinary team from NHS Sussex, including clinical, pharmacy and safeguarding colleagues, was also convened to monitor progress and provide additional oversight, and this continues weekly.

The CQC revisited the practice for a follow-up inspection on 11 Nov 2025 and subsequently issued a notice of proposal to terminate Hailsham Medical Group’s registration. The practice has submitted an appeal against this notice, which the CQC is considering.

Due to this, and our ongoing engagement with wider partners, NHS Sussex has now concluded that the best course of action to bring some stability to the provision of General Practice in the area and ensure patient safety would be for the ICB to engage a new provider from the local area to provide GP services to this patient group in the community.

This would take the form of calling for rapid expressions of interest from current local providers within an 8-mile radius of Hailsham. Any provider(s) interested in taking on the patient list must continue to offer all services from one or more of the existing HMG premises and maintain the same catchment area boundary. They must also commit to working with HMG to understand if and how TUPE will apply to the existing HMG staff.

This would enable services to continue, providing unbroken access to primary care with little or no changes for patients, and bring in a fresh leadership team to support practice staff and to provide a long-term future for primary care services in the town.

All services remain open and accessible as usual while this work progresses. All patients registered with Hailsham Medical Group can continue to contact the practice as they have always done and attend appointments at the places they would do usually.

Our main priority is to support patients and staff, and we will continue to work with all involved, alongside NHS England to take the necessary action to ensure patients continue to have access to safe, high-quality care in the longer term.

Further updates will be shared here as soon as they are available.

Published: Jan 16, 2026