HOSPITALS are to be offered financial incentives to improve the level of care they offer some of their most ill patients, the Daily Post can reveal.

NHS North West will today announce a scheme called ‘advancing quality’ which it hopes will lead to higher standards of care across the NHS in the North West.

The region’s hospitals, primary care trusts and ambulance trust will receive extra cash if they meet standards set by NHS North West.

If levels of care - such as administering antibiotics at the right time - are met when dealing with patients suffering heart attacks, pneumonia or heart-failure, then the health trust will receive an extra 1 to 2% of what they’d normally receive for carrying out treatment.

Standards are also being set for hip and knee replacement procedures and heart by-pass operations.

Initially, Wirral Hospitals Trust, Wirral PCT, Mid Cheshire PCT, St Helens and Knowsley Hospital Trust and Halton and St Helens PCT will be among those taking part.

Other trusts, such as Royal Liverpool and Broad Green Hospital Trust, hope to follow in later waves.

Asked by the Daily Post whether hospitals were just receiving money for services they should already be providing, Mike Farrar, chief executive of NHS North West, said: “This is about making sure everyone receives the highest level of care possible when in hospital.

“It is about incentivising clinicians to provide the best possible care across the region. The trusts will receive extra money if they meet our standards, but it is widely accepted that trusts offering the highest level of care all the time reduce their running costs . This is because re-admissions are less likely to occur, and there are less likely to be complications.

“We estimate this programme could save up to 140 lives a year.”

When the Daily Post revealed the plan was being considered in February, critics claimed that it was effectively rewarding hospitals for keeping patients alive.

Concern was also expressed that hospitals would become more selective about the patients they treated to make sure they achieved targets.

But Mr Farrar said: “That won’t be the case. It is about the level of care patients receive in hospital.”

An American company, Premier Inc, has been brought in to oversee the project. NHS North West claims Premier’s scheme in America has led to 1,300 heart-attack patients having their lives saved, reducing heart by-pass surgery death rates to just 1.6%, with just 3.9% of cases having complications.

Mr Farrar added: “Premier Inc has a vast amount of experience in the US ‘not- for-profit’ sector and leads the field in the development of analytical tools. It also has a proven track record in helping healthcare providers deliver the improvements in that care.

“Advancing Quality will result in patients having a better experience in hospital and ultimately a better quality of life. They will also have more say and influence as their opinions and experiences of the care they received in hospital.

“This scheme will demonstrate it is possible to improve results and save money.

“It will also provide important information to NHS staff and provide assurance that what they think happens to patients does actually happen.”

The PCTs across the NHS have allocated up to £7.1m of their budgets for the first full year to run the scheme.

This figure includes more than £5m that will be invested in hospitals that are successful in improving the quality of care for patients.

The remainder will be allocated to running the programme, including providing Trusts and PCTs with money to help them roll-out the programme.

This figure may rise to £10.6m in future years.