Weston Area Health NHS Trust has been named in a list of the UK’s 40 top hospitals for a record eighth consecutive year.
The 40 are compiled by CHKS (Comparative Health Knowledge Systems) – the UK’s leading independent provider of healthcare intelligence - which works with Trusts to improve the quality of their services by analysing their data and acting on the information it gives.
Every NHS acute Trust is included in the analysis.
Hospitals are rated on 23 key performance indicators covering safety, clinical effectiveness, efficiency, health outcomes, efficiency, patient experience and quality of care.
The CHKS data reveals that patients treated at any of the 40 Top Hospitals are safer and less likely to pick up hospital acquired infections, such as MRSA. Weston has not had a single case of hospital-acquired MRSA throughout all of 2011/12.
Dr Tricia Woodhead, Director of Quality, Safety and Innovation at Weston Area Health NHS Trust, said: “To achieve a 40 Top ranking out of 133 Trusts for the eighth year running is an excellent result, of which we are very proud.
“We are the only South West Hospital to have achieved that level of consistent performance in the history of the 40 Top Hospitals and it reflects the tremendous effort staff make here every day to deliver high quality and efficient care.
“Our data clearly shows that we are doing particularly well in our planning to help patients return to their homes as quickly as possible and in not having to re-admit them again quickly – these are the kind of standards that matter to our patients and which we know they will be reassured to see us performing well on.”
Jason Harries, Managing Director of CHKS, said: “We are delighted that Weston is again one of our 40 Top Hospitals for 2012.
“Our awards programme provides reassurance to hospital boards, staff and patients that their Trust is among the highest performers when it comes to data quality, safety and quality of care.
“I’m delighted that so many first-class organisations have won our awards this year.”
For further information, please contact Caroline Welch on 01934 647091