Radcliffe Hospitals gain ‘excellent rating’ for the first time

THE Healthcare Commission recently announced that Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals have, for the first time, been given the top rating of ?excellent? for their services to patients.
The Commission assessed hospital performance against key standards which were then used to calculate the overall quality rating.

Core standards

The first part of the health check examines whether NHS Trusts are meeting 44 ?core standards?, covering areas such as safety, the care environment and amenities, clinical and cost effectiveness and patient focus. The Healthcare Commission has assessed the Trust as having fully met these standards.

Existing national targets

?Existing national targets? look at whether or not the Trust is meeting a range of standards, particularly focusing on how long patients wait for treatment, including diagnosis and treatment for cancer, waiting times in A&E and waiting times for planned operations. Again, the Commission assessed the Trust as having fully met these targets.

In terms of inpatient and outpatient waiting times the Trust met the national targets early. The only targets that the trust did not quite meet in this category were the national target for ?Thrombolysis: 60 minute call to needle time? and for waiting times in A&E (Call to needle time means from the moment someone calls an ambulance, to the moment they receive the treatment (which could either be in an
ambulance or at the hospital). In previous years, the measurement was door to needle time (ie from the moment the ambulance arrived to receiving treatment), and the ORH fully achieved the target.

New national targets

The ?new national targets? focus on the ways in which healthcare organisations are helping to improve the health of the population in England. The indicators include diverse factors, such as smoking cessation, drug misuse, teenage pregnancy and obesity, and the treatment of heart and stroke patients. The Healthcare Commission has assessed the ORH as Excellent in this category.

The Trust met eight out of the ten standards, under-achieving on two indicators, the reduction of emergency bed days, and the participation in clinical audits.

Chief Executive, Trevor Campbell Davis, said: “I am delighted that the hard work of staff and clinicians in caring for our patients has been recognised in this report. The annual health check is a complex set of assessments which considers many aspects of healthcare provided by our hospitals. It is important, as it gives patients a picture of the quality of care we provide, and reassures people that we are managing public resources efficiently. We are really pleased that we have shown such improvement over the previous year.
?I would like to thank staff for their outstanding work for patients during the past year. Our clinicians, and all of the staff who support them, juggle priorities on a daily basis, and work hard to ensure that each of our patients gets the best care possible. Everyone contributes in some way to these targets, and they should be proud to see the improvements made.
?I would also like to thank the patient groups with whom we work, who have helped us improve our services over the past few years. Their participation assists us in so many ways. They tell us when we get things right and when we get things wrong. They want us to do well.
?Our staff and patients can take pleasure in how far we have come in recent years, and I congratulate them for all they have achieved and look forward to an exciting future together.?

Use of resources

The Trust also scored ?fair? for ?use of resources?. This is an improved score for the ORH over the results last year.

The Trust reported an in-year surplus of