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Hands: “Hospitals star rating drop must not lead to major reorganisation.”

http://www.chi.nhs.uk/Ratings/Reports/

SummaryReportCore.asp?TrustCode=5H1

http://ratings2005.healthcarecommission.org.uk/

Reports/SummaryReportCore.asp?TrustCode

=5H1&trustType=PCT

Following news that Hammersmith Hospitals NHS Trust has been downgraded from a three star to a two star service, local MP Greg Hands has called for any plans for a major reorganisation of local hospitals to be abandoned.

Last year, the Hospitals Trust was awarded the top three stars available, however due a failure to meet the standards for financial management has seen their rating drop this year. The national ratings show that NHS finances are close to meltdown. One quarter of NHS trusts failed to break even last year and even more are facing deficits this year.

Commenting, Greg said: “The past few months have been extremely turbulent for the local Hospitals Trust – with the threatened closure or severe downsizing of Charing Cross Hospital on the agenda.

“The downgrading of the Trust’s star rating for failing to meet financial management standards must be taken as a sign that Trust bosses should get the ship into order, not embark on unnecessary and unwarranted major restructuring.”

At a recent meeting with Derek Smith, Chief Executive of the Hammersmith Hospitals NHS Trust, Greg discovered that in order to maintain and update the buildings at both Charing Cross Hospital and Hammersmith Hospital it would cost £400 million. The Trust also revealed that £270 million would need to be spent on Hammersmith Hospital, with just £130 million required for Charing Cross Hospital.

Greg strongly believes that the Charing Cross Hospital should remain fully open, with all of its current services, on its current site, as an essential provider for local healthcare needs.

Greg added: “These national figures further show that the Government does not have a grip on NHS finances. Taxpayers’ money is being squandered. The Government has imposed cost on the NHS and wasted money on bureaucracy, rather than spending it on front line care”.

 

 

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The number of top performing "three star" hospitals in England has fallen for the first time since league tables were introduced because so many are failing to balance their books.

More than 20 hospital trusts achieved "below average" scores for tackling the MRSA superbug, but one in three is running deficits which contributed to the NHS overspending its budget last year by £500 million.

The figures are revealed today by the hospitals inspectorate, which said many hospitals were demoted for financial reasons or for failing to treat patients in accident and emergency within four hours.

Among those which lost the coveted three-star status was King's College Hospital, London, which fell to two stars for missing financial targets.

It also under-performed on targets which state that patients with possible breast cancer must be seen within two months of a GP referral.

Hospital trusts in West Suffolk and South Warwickshire fell from three stars to one star, while Hammersmith, Bedford and Bromley fell from three to two and Epsom and St Helier from two to one.

Hospitals which received no stars included the Royal Free in Hampstead, north London, which was recently praised for treating 61 casualties after the July 7 bus and train bombings, Mid Yorkshire and North Middlesex.

In a statement, the Royal Free claimed that, if assessed today, it would have two stars. It said the main areas where it fell down were finance, the four-hour target for A&E and "the state of repair of two of the lavatories across our three hospitals".

Chelsea and Westminster Hospital rose from one star to three stars, after scoring highly on patient and clinical care and financial management, while Mayday Healthcare in Croydon rose from two to three stars.

The league tables show that many hospitals are meeting waiting times for operations and achieving fewer deaths from cancer and heart disease.

But 138 out of 590 NHS trusts failed to break even, 72 out of 303 primary care trusts (GP, dentist and mental health services) failed to balance their books and one in three acute hospital trusts (59 out of 173) overspent.

Anna Walker, the chief executive of the Healthcare Commission, which publishes the tables, said the overspend figure of £500 million accounted for less than one per cent of the NHS's £69.7 billion budget.

But the issue was being taken very seriously because patient care was at risk if large deficits remained.

She also had particular concerns about the performance of trusts in south-east England - an affluent region with fewer health problems than more deprived areas of the North. One of the hospitals highlighted as among this year's worst performers was Surrey and Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust, which failed a number of key targets including financial management and A&E targets and was awarded zero stars.

Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust was again given no stars, failing on waiting times and financial management.

Earlier this month the trust's Royal Sussex County Hospital featured in a Panorama undercover investigation showing a series of failures in care for the elderly.

In one scene, a patient was left to die on her own, and in another a patient was left waiting hours to go to the lavatory.

The league tables show a rise in the number of NHS trusts - as opposed to hospital trusts - with three stars, up 19 from 146 to 165. There was also a fall in the number of trusts with no stars, down 11 from 35 to 24. The number of three-star hospital trusts fell from 61 to 58.

For the first nine months of the year, all hospital trusts met the target of 90 per cent of patients waiting less than four hours in A&E.

But when the bar was raised to 98 per cent for the last three months of the year, 62 out of 159 trusts with A&E departments failed.

Around 28 trusts achieved above average scores for tackling MRSA while 21 achieved below average scores. The number of MRSA cases in hospital fell from 7,684 in 2003-4 to 7,215 in 2004-5.

The star ratings system has been condemned as too simplistic by critics and next year the inspectorate will rate trusts with an annual health check - a four-point scale ranging from excellent to weak.

July 31, 2005