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Watchdog to report on NHS performance

13/10/2008

The Healthcare Commission is due to reveal performance ratings for every NHS trust in England to show whether organisations have improved services and made better use of their resources since 2005.

The report was first carried out between 2005 and 2006 making comparisons over the last three years possible for the first time.

The report will be published this Thursday and will provide a detailed picture of the state of public healthcare in England. Every one of the country's 391 NHS trusts is involved.

Each trust will receive two ratings on a four-point scale of 'excellent', 'good', 'fair' or 'weak'. One rating covers the quality of their services, measured against the government's core standards and national targets; the other relates to the use of their resources, measured against how well they manage their finances.

The score for quality of services will be based on how well trusts perform against core standards in areas such as safety, quality of care and how responsive a trust is to patients; existing national targets, which are predominantly concerned with waiting times and access to services; and new national targets, designed to promote improvement in health outcomes such as smoking, sexual health, health inequalities and reduction in death rates for cancer, stroke and heart disease.

The score for use of resources is based on how well an organisation in the NHS manages its finances and achieves value for money.

All the information will be available on the commission's website, allowing people to look up their trust and find out how their local services are performing.

Gary Needle, head of assessment and methods at the Healthcare Commission, said: "We all have ownership of the NHS, so it's only right that patients and the public should be able to see detailed information about how their local services are performing and whether they are meeting core standards.

"Last year we saw improvements across the country, and I hope we will see this trend continue in this year's ratings."