Epsom and St Helier University Hospitals NHS Trust has been awarded a rating of 'good' for the quality of services it provides to local people and 'fair' for the way it manages its finances in the 2008/09 Care Quality Commission's Annual Health Check.
The Annual Health Check assesses the performance of all NHS trusts in England and Wales, giving a score of 'excellent', 'good', 'fair' or 'weak' for the two areas. The ratings provide patients, local people and staff with a public assurance about the quality of local NHS services, and help drive improvements both locally and nationally.
The quality of services rating is made up of a number of targets set by the government. We were awarded the top rating of 'fully met' for the way we meet core standards, 'fully met' for achieving existing commitments and 'good' (the second highest score) for meeting national priorities.
The core standards focus on areas which are of particular importance to patients, like safety, cleanliness and how responsive a trust is to their needs. The existing commitments cover waiting times and access to services, whilst national priorities are those initiatives which are designed to reduce health inequalities and improve people's health, including reducing deaths from cancer, stroke and heart disease.
Our 'fair' rating for the quality of our financial management reflects the way in which we have sustained the improvements we made to our finances in recent years, including how well we plan and monitor the money we spend.
It is also linked to the continued hard work of staff and volunteers in helping us to improve the efficiency of our services and, in turn, save money. Doing this helped us to move from a deficit of £5.5 million in 2006/07 to surpluses of £827,000 and £4.9 million in 2007/08 and 2008/09 respectively. This has allowed us to pay off our historic debt, which means that all future surpluses can be invested in redeveloping our hospitals and further improving the services we provide to patients.
Chief Executive, Samantha Jones, said: "I am pleased with the ratings we have received in the 2008/09 Care Quality Commission's Annual Health Check.
"Our staff and volunteers have worked hard this year to help us maintain and improve the quality and safety of the clinical services we provide to local people, while also ensuring our finances are well managed. Our result in this year's Annual Health Check is down to their hard work and reflects our commitment to further improve the care that every patient visiting the Trust receives.
"I am particularly pleased that we have been declared fully compliant with the standards related to infection control and prevention. This proves that we were right to make this our number one priority and I know it will help to reassure patients and local people.
"However, we are not complacent and recognise that we can definitely improve on our Annual Health Check ratings in the next couple of years. Over the coming weeks we will be reviewing our overall results to see where we need to focus our attention."
In 2007/08, we achieved a rating of 'good' for the quality of our services and 'fair' for the way we manage our finances. In 2006/07, we received 'good' and 'weak' respectively.
