Health services 'getting better'

NHS trusts were scored on services and how they spend their money

NHS trusts across the West Midlands are generally improving, a national hospitals watchdog has said.

The Healthcare Commission gave three bodies a top rating for their use of resources and quality of service.

They were Birmingham Children's Hospital, the Heart of England Trust and the South Staffordshire and Shropshire Healthcare Trust.

Only the Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust was named as weak for both. Managers said they were "disappointed".

The results showed that overall a third of the organisations in the region - 15 out of 45 - had improved compared to last year's ratings.

The ratings, which are published nationally every year, were based on two principle categories: quality of services and how they had managed their finances.

I am desperately disappointed that we will be seen as a poorly performing trust John Rostill Worcestershire Acute Hospitals Trust chief executive

The areas assessed included waiting list lengths and how hospitals dealt with ward infections.

Each organisation was rated either "weak", "fair", "good" or "excellent" for each category.

Other trusts that received "excellent" ratings for at least one of the categories include Birmingham East and North Primary Care Trust (PCT), Birmingham Women's Healthcare NHS Trust, North Staffordshire Combined Healthcare NHS Trust, Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Trust, The Royal Orthopaedic Hospital NHS Trust, University Hospitals Birmingham Foundation Trust and Worcestershire Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust.

The Worcestershire Acute Hospitals Trust was criticised for its waiting times for chest pain clinics and the speed at which patients who had their operations cancelled were readmitted.

It was also told its financial performance needed improving.

Financial position

Chief executive John Rostill said the trust had already made significant progress despite facing large debts.

Mr Rostill said: "I am desperately disappointed that we will be seen as a poorly performing trust, but the facts are that last year we single-mindedly focused on sorting out our financial position - which we did. I simply don't accept the term weak as a realistic description of our financial regime.

"If you look at feedback from many of our patients, and consider the awards won recently by our community midwives, radiology and discharge teams to name just a few, it is clear that we are doing a lot right."

Cynthia Bower, chief executive of NHS West Midlands, said all trusts rated "weak" were developing action plans to tackle their problems.