The general picture in the watchdog’s annual health check of England’s trusts was, however, one of improvement. But regional divides persist, with the north performing better than the south.

Trusts were rated on two principle categories: quality of services and how they had managed their finances.

Nineteen trusts scored “excellent” on both parts of the rating, up from two last year.

But 20 were deemed “weak” – the lowest scoring – on both counts, four of these for two years in a row.

Health Secretary Alan Johnson said he had asked the commission to re-inspect the 44 trusts failing on infection.

He also said that if the chief executive of the NHS was unable to resolve the situation through talks with the boards at the four weakest hospitals, one option would be a takeover by a well performing trust.

The four comprise West Hertfordshire Hospitals NHS Trust, Surrey and Sussex Healthcare Trust, Northern Devon Healthcare Trust and Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust.

Meanwhile, the proportion of operations which were cancelled fell for the third year in a row.

But there were targets not being met: some 70% were failing on “convenience and choice”, which says patients should be able to choose from four different NHS providers.

This, the commission said, was primarily because GPs were not contractually obliged to offer the choice, and technical problems with the computer booking system were not uncommon.

The disappointing findings on infection control were partially mitigated by the fact that new and more rigorous standards were introduced in October 2006, the commission said.

“The bar was raised dramatically on infection control and that explains why trusts seem to be performing worse than in the past,” said chief executive Anna Walker.

But the findings on the failure of some trusts to ensure hygiene standards – including cleaning hands and instruments – comes just a week after serious such shortcomings at the Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust were blamed for the deaths of up to 90 patients from C. difficile.

Overall, the South West strategic health authority (SHA), one of the 10 covering the country, had the highest proportion of weak trusts. The South East Coast SHA had the lowest proportion of “excellent” trusts and the highest combination of “weak” and “fair”.

Health Direct also shows the good NHS news. The following were rated as excellent trusts
Basingstoke and North Hampshire
Birmingham Children’s Hospital
Calderdale and Huddersfield
Cambridge University Hospitals
Chelsea and Westminster Hospital
Chesterfield Royal Hospital
Frimley Park Hospital
Guy’s and St Thomas’, London
Heart of England
Liverpool Women’s Hospital
Papworth Hospital
Queen Victoria Hospital
Salford Royal
Sheffield Children’s
Sheffield Teaching Hospitals
Royal Marsden
Yeovil District Hospital
South Essex Partnership
South Staffordshire Healthcare
Trusts rated excellent in both principle categories

The East Midlands SHA had the highest proportion of “excellent” trusts and the North East SHA had the highest combination of “excellent” and “good” trusts.

From:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7048981.stm

Health Direct has long been warning about the disaster that is MRSA, Clostridium difficle and superbugs in general. What we want is CLEAN hospitals not clean ER hospitals. Until politicians develop a zero tolerance towards poor hygiene more people will continue to die unnecessarily.

On Thu 11 Jan 07 Health Direct posted NHS hospitals may never achieve MRSA superbug targets as the NHS is not on track to meet its MRSA target and perhaps never will, a leaked government memo says.

In November 2004, then health secretary John Reid pledged MRSA rates would be halved by April 2008. But the memo, sent to ministers by a Department of Health official, said it would only be cut by a third by then. It also reportedly recommended ways to handle the news in the media. Dr Mark Enright, from Imperial College, said the target was “unrealistic”.

The document went on to discuss six options for “handling” the target. Of the six, just one recommends simply trying to meet the current target – the other five discuss ways of changing the target or timescale, or dropping the target altogether.

The memo also warns that another superbug, Clostridium difficile, is now “endemic throughout the health service, with virtually all trusts reporting cases” and shows that 2004 saw twice as many deaths from the bug as were related to MRSA.

And it warns that efforts to combat MRSA, such as alcohol handrubs, have had no impact on C. difficile, which it describes as a “far bigger problem”.