troubled Eastbourne District General Hospital today unveiled plans for restoring

public confidence, revamping workplace attitudes and rebuilding staff pride.

The action plan, called

Openness, Involvement and Partnership, includes nurse recruitment, developing new guidelines for reporting serious incidents and viewing complaints as a way of learning from mistakes.

Anne Bolter, the new chairman of Eastbourne Hospitals NHS Trust, which runs the hospital, said: "There is a new sense of direction and purpose in the trust. The challenge now is to bring about a significant change of

culture to make the themes of our action plan a living reality."

Management see the plan as a

fundamental change of mood for

the beleaguered hospital. They want to use the work to transform the

hospital into one of the best in the country.

Openness, Involvement and Partnership outlines changes made within the trust during the past three months, following a damning NHS report set up after the controversial deaths of two patients.

The report, by Roy Greenwood, director of nursing for the NHS in the South East, slated management for its autocratic style and failure to listen to genuine concerns raised by workers about pressures on the wards.

It was highly critical of the mix of nursing skills and the trend of not alerting outside health organisations to mistakes and problems.

The trust's former chief executive, Clive Uren, and chairman John Barkshire quit as soon as the report was published.

Changes already in place include four beds for high-dependency patients, 40 extra nurses and a new post, director of operational services, which has been set up to co-ordinate the hospital's day-to-day running.

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