Praise for health services (From Echo)

Praise for health services

4:35am Thursday 18th October 2007 in

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SOUTH Essex's mental health and learning disability trust has come out top in the whole country in an annual audit.

The Healthcare Commission awarded an "excellent" overall rating to South Essex NHS Trust - one of just two in the UK to be rated so highly.

The report rates trusts for quality of service - patient safety, cleanliness and waiting times - as well as how they managed their resources.

Trust chief executive Patrick Geoghegan said: "Ultimately, it is our staff who continue to ensure we are consistently named as one of the top trusts in the country."

Southend Hospital's trust received a "good" rating for its services and "excellent" for managing its resources, an improvement on last year.

Chief executive John Gilham is delighted with the progress made since the hospital became a foundation trust in June, 2006.

The hospital still needed to improve its communication with patients and the time it took for test and scan results to come back, he added.

South East Essex Primary Care Trust, which provides general healthcare in Southend, Rochford district and Castle Point, fared less well, achieving only "fair" ratings in both main categories.

Chief executive Andrew Pike said the past year had been a challenging time.

He added: "During a time of substantial change, our staff worked extremely hard to continue providing a first-rate health service to people in the area."

However, the trust achieved a "good" score for public health, promotion, with its success in helping people quit smoking among its biggest achievements.

Basildon Hospital was given a "fair" rating for its services and "excellent" for its use of resources. Last year, it was rated "good" and "excellent".

Trust chairman Michael Large admitted he was disappointed to see its service rating slip.

"We have already introduced measures which address the issues which affected our performance on service quality, " he said. "We are confident our efforts will be reflected in next year's assessment."

South West Essex Primary Care Trust, which provides general healthcare in Basildon district, Brentwood and Thurrock boroughs, was rated "good" for its services and "fair" for its use of resources.

Chairman Val Liddiard said: "We are performing well on many aspects of service delivery that matter most to patients, particularly on issues that will improve the health of our local community."

The East of England Ambulance Service, which provides ambulance cover in Essex and the rest of the region, received a "good" score for its service and "fair" for resources.

Haydn Newton, interim chief executive, said: "It was a tremendous effort by all of our staff in what has been a huge year for the ambulance service."