NHS trust health checked (From Witney Gazette)

NHS trust health checked

9:00am Wednesday 18th October 2006 in Witney By The Page Turner

OXFORD Radcliffe Hospitals Trust was last week praised for its patient care, but branded weak over its financial management.

Trevor Campbell Davis, the trust's chief executive, welcomed the praise after the Healthcare Commission unveiled the results of its first annual 'health check'.

The commission rated 570 NHS trusts in England on a four-point scale, from excellent to weak, for quality of services and use of resources, the latter focusing on financial management.

The ORH's 'good' rating placed it in the top half of all acute trusts, and the top 40 per cent of all NHS trusts.

But a £33m deficit for 2005/2006, which has prompted a programme of cuts, including up to 200 job losses and the downgrading of the Horton Hospital, Banbury, meant a 'weak' rating for use of resources.

Mr Campbell Davis said: "Underpinning everything we do has to be financial stability. It is not just about balancing the books in the short term, but about creating sustainable quality within the resources available in the local NHS."

Managers at the trust, which runs the John Radcliffe, Radcliffe Infirmary, and Churchill Hospitals, Oxford, and the Horton Hospital, in Banbury, say their savings programme is on target to achieve year-on-year financial stability. They are pleased staff hit 11 out of 13 in the existing national targets, which include categories such as: * cancer waits for GP referral, diagnosis and treatment, * patients spending under four hours in accident and emergency, * inpatient waiting times.

The Healthcare Commission report replaces a star-rating system introduced five years ago.

GP Peter Skolar, who is chairman of Oxfordshire's health overview and scrutiny committee, said the commission's report was no better than the star system.

He added: "Patients are not interested whatsoever in these self-declarations of excellence, which will have taken hundreds of man hours to compile.

"They want to know that their local hospitals are providing a good service for their patients, and that they are clean, and on their doorstep."