NHS trusts 'named and shamed' in ratings
NHS trusts named and shamed by health service watchdog performance ratings
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By Matthew Champion. |  |
Thursday, 15, Oct 2009 12:30
By Sarah Garrod
NHS trusts have been named and shamed in performance ratings data released by the watchdog the Care Quality Commission (CQC) today.
While the NHS had seen "big improvements" on issues such as A&E waiting hours and chlamydia screening, there were 20 trusts which were rated "weak".
The CQC said the NHS performed well under their strict assessment, but there were concerns that 27 trusts had not rated higher than "fair" for quality and financial management in the last four years.
The assessment showed big improvements for patients with more people seen in A&E within four hours, more receiving treatment within 18 weeks of referral, more screened for Chlamydia and big reductions in MRSA & Clostridium difficile cases.
Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS trust was the only trust rated double-weak, down from six trusts last year.
The main issues the CQC found were a "drop in compliance with the core standard on child safeguarding down from 96.4 per cent last year to 90.7 per cent this year", the proportion of cancelled operations rose again, and only 37 per cent of acute trusts meet the required level of performance on specialist stroke care.
Cynthia Bower, CQC chief executive, said: "The NHS has performed well on quality, which is good news in the face of a rigorous assessment.
"But it is clear that some trusts are struggling and that some issues are proving tough nuts to crack. My biggest concern is those trusts that are 'weak' and persistently 'weak' or 'fair'. They must do better for their patients.
"I want to ring the alarm bell in the boardrooms of these organisations. Next year, all trusts must register with us to legally function. It is clear that many have significant work to do and a short time in which to do it."
Despite this, the CQC also congratulated those trust who they perceived to have done well. Those hailed as high performing trusts included Alder Hey children's NHS foundation trust and The Royal Orthopaedic hospital NHS foundation trust, and those which had made considerable improvements included Moorfields eye hospital.
Responding to the ratings health minister Mike O'Brien said: "The assessment has been more challenging this year. The CQC introduced tough new criteria for mental health and ambulance trusts, we introduced the hygiene code a year early and there has been greater scrutiny of some core standards, such as child safeguarding following the tragic Baby Peter case.
"We also know that trusts themselves have carried out a more rigorous self-assessment ahead of the requirement to seek registration with the CQC next year.
"This is the most rigorous assessment of standards that the NHS has ever seen, carried out by a new independent regulator who we established and tasked with making sure the toughest standards are enforced routinely across the system.
This makes it difficult to compare with previous years but is essential as we move towards registration of all NHS services.
"For the small number of Trusts whose performance is weak, we expect immediate action to be taken to remedy this quickly and to prepare for registration with the CQC next year. Earlier this year we introduced a tough new performance regime and will not hesitate to trigger this if we need to."