NHS trust's care gets top marks

The trust is involved in providing mental health facilities

The Northamptonshire Healthcare NHS Trust has scored double top marks in a watchdog's annual performance review.

The Healthcare Commission rated both the quality of the trust's services and the use of its resources as excellent in its annual health check.

Secretary of State for Health Alan Johnson sent a letter to the trust congratulating it on being one of the 57 best NHS organisations in England.

The trust provides mental health care, and drug and alcohol services.

It also helps people with learning disabilities and provides sexual health advice.

Northamptonshire Healthcare's chief executive Ron Shields said: "We are delighted with the results of this year's assessment.

"Staff across all our services have worked extremely hard to maintain the high score we achieved in last year's health check and to demonstrate the high quality of treatment and care we are providing for people in Northamptonshire."

The Healthcare Commission report said: "Based on our assessment for 2007/08, Northamptonshire Healthcare NHS Trust continued to provide an excellent quality of service to patients, having made significant improvements after the first year of the annual health check.

"It has been excellent at managing its finances and has made continued improvements over the last three years."

The Trust is planning to build a new £35m mental health hospital in Northampton.