Embargoed Press Release until 16 October 2008 at 00:01hrs
Ref 38/08
Basingstoke and North Hampshire NHS Foundation Trust has achieved the highest possible ratings of excellent for ‘quality of services’ and excellent for ‘use of resources’, according to the third annual health check published today by the Healthcare Commission.
Basingstoke is one of only 12 trusts - all foundations trusts - to have achieved double excellent two years in a row. The quality of service score, which includes patient safety, cleanliness and waiting times, is made up of three components:
Chief executive, Mary Edwards, said, “We are delighted to be rated amongst the highest achieving hospitals in England for the second year running. Excellent and excellent is the highest achievable rating. This is tribute to the dedication and hard work of all our staff and we are delighted with the recognition in this assessment. We are also pleased that we have demonstrated that we manage our resources effectively.”
The annual health check is the most important of the Healthcare Commission’s activities. It involves assessing and rating the performance of each NHS trust in England during the financial year from 1 April to 31 March. When doing so, they look at a wide range of areas, from the overall quality of care – including safety of patients, cleanliness and waiting times – to how well trusts manage their finances. This includes how well the trust has met Department of Health core standards and existing national targets for NHS healthcare providers.
It also looks at how effectively the trust manages its financial resources. The assessment of this draws on work carried out by the Audit Commission and by Monitor, the regulator of NHS foundation trusts.
Every one of the country’s NHS trusts is involved and each receives a rating on a four-point scale of ‘excellent’, ‘good’, ‘fair’ or ‘weak’ in two broad areas: the quality of their services measured against the Government’s core standards and targets and how well they manage their finances.
The Commission’s assessment of the NHS uses a combination of self-declaration, performance data and inspections to focus efforts where the core standards and targets are most at risk of being breached. The views of patients and the public are then fed in, as well as local intelligence gathered by assessment managers across the country. A score of excellent means that a trust performed well beyond the minimum requirements and the reasonable expectations for the new national targets assessments.
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For further information
Contact Gina Hanafin, Head of Communications and PPI, on (01256) 313062 or
(01256) 473202 and ask for Bleep 2204. E-mail: gina.hanafin@bnhft.nhs.uk