Local health trusts all rated “good” or “excellent”, though problems persist with MRSA and responding to calls
DORSET County Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, Dorset Primary Care Trust and the South Western Ambulance Service NHS Trust are all doing a good job for people in West Dorset, according to annual assessments out today from the Care Quality Commission.
Hospital and ambulance trusts are rated in two main areas for their peformance in 2008/09, quality of services, and quality of financial management.
Dorset County Hospital NHS Foundation Trust has slipped from “excellent” to “good” for quality of services.
The trust was judged to be compliant with 41 national core standards, but not with three, concerning decontamination, consent and food.
Similarly, the trust met 10 national priorities, but “underachieved“ on three: incidence of MRSA, smoking during pregnancy and getting mothers breast-feeding, and participation in heart disease audits.
As regards local long-standing targets, known in the jargon as “existing commitments”, the trust is achieving eight indicators, but underachieving on two: cancelled operations and those not admitted within 28 days, and delayed transfers of care.
South Western Ambulance Service NHS Trust was compliant with 40 national core standards, but not with two, regarding the safe use of medical devices, and records management. As regards its “existing commitments”, the ambulance service is missing one out of 4. It’s under-achieving on the national 19-minute standard for responding to Category B calls (that is, calls to incidents that are serious but not immediately life-threatening). But it’s excellent for meeting all national priorities.
Dorset Primary Care Trust, based at Hillfort House in Poundbury Road in Dorchester, and also known as NHS Dorset, is judged “good” for quality of commissioning and for the quality of its financial management.
Dorset Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, which mostly covers Bournemouth and Poole and the eastern half of Dorset, but provides some specialist services (for example, mental health services) across the whole county, is rated “excellent”.