Women’s Hospital among the cream of NHS trusts

Oct 18 2007 by Liza Williams, Liverpool Daily Post

LIVERPOOL Women’s Hospital was among only 16 NHS trusts in the country to score two top “excellent” ratings in a report assessing health care standards.

The Healthcare Commission’s annual health check praised the foundation hospital’s quality of service and use of resources.

Overall Merseyside’s healthcare bodies achieved higher marks and made bigger improvements than neighbouring areas.

Mersey Care was the most improved mental health trust nationally, after increasing its 2006 services rating of “weak”, to “good”.

But some individual NHS Trusts were told they need to improve patient care and services.

Southport and Ormskirk Hospital Trust only scored “fair” for its services, a drop from last year. And it was classed “weak” in the resources section.

And Liverpool, Sefton, Wirral and Western Cheshire PCTs all only achieved “fair” in both categories.

Last night Southport and Ormskirk Hospitals Trust said it would be appealing for a review of its rating.

A spokesman said staff’s achievements in many areas were overshadowed by missing targets on MRSA rates and encouraging mothers-to-be to stop smoking.

He said: “In the light of the weighting that appears to have been applied to the two specific missed indicators, the trust feels that the grading of “fair” misrepresents the overall quality of services we provide and we will be lodging a formal appeal with the Healthcare commission requesting a full review.”

Healthcare Commission area manager Stephen Bennett said the trend to lower results was evident across the North West’s in newly formed health bodies, like Liverpool PCT which is a recent amalgamation of Liverpool Central, North and South PCTs.

“Reconfigured PCTs have all struggled a bit because they are starting a fresh in many ways but we hope to see improvement next year,” said Mr Bennett.

“Liverpool as a whole has done pretty well; there is definite high achievement but also trusts do need to make changes.”

The chief executive at Liverpool Women’s Hospital, Louise Shepherd, welcomed that the trust was one of only 16 NHS trusts to get two “excellent” ratings, out of 394 tested across the country.

“These ratings reflect the consistently high quality of service provided by our very committed and hardworking staff.”

Now in its second year, the Annual Healthcheck is produced as a tool for trusts and patients to monitor progress.

But Derek Campbell, chief executive of Liverpool PCT, said it did not provide a truly accurate picture.

He said: “This assessment is largely a fair reflection of our performance over the last year and shows that we are providing consistently good levels of services.

“However, the assessment does not reflect the significant improvements that have been made in some areas, such as the high score received for our Public Health Development Standards.”

lizawilliams