Press Release

16 October 2008

Mid Essex Hospitals are in the Best of Health

MID Essex hospitals, who run Broomfield and St John’s hospitals in Chelmsford, has maintained its position as a top performer in the latest ratings from the health watchdog, the Healthcare Commission.

The Trust once again received the highest rating of excellent for the quality of services provided to patients in the 2007/08 annual health check.

Ruth May, chief executive of mid Essex hospitals, said:” This is a great achievement to have maintained our position as an excellent provider of services to our patients and it shows that everyone within the Trust is working together for the benefit of our patients.”

This rating puts the Trust in the top 10 Trusts in the East of England and the top 26% in the country for the quality of services.
This rating confirms the Trust is performing well is areas such as infection control, waiting times and patient safety.  Over 60 separate targets feature in the annual assessment – from reducing levels of MRSA, to making sure patients referred with suspected cancers are seen by a specialist within two weeks.The score takes into account that the Trust fully met all of the Government’s core standards and existing national targets, whilst being rated as excellent for the new national targets.

Ruth adds” Whilst we have received an excellent rating for our services we are not complacent and know that we have to work even harder to maintain this standard next year.  It is vital that we continue to provide excellent services for our patients and can demonstrate that we are a well run organisaiton as this will help us with our application to become a Foundation Trust in 2009. “
The Trust has also improved its rating for the use of resources (financial management) from the lowest rating of weak to the next level of fair.

Ruth adds:” We know we still have to improve on our financial performance and have made a big step forward during 2007/08 when we reached our savings target and over delivered on our financial target, recording a £9m surplus.  As well as improving our financial position improvements have also been made in our financial accounting and reporting arrangements and how we manage our finances.”

Trust’s are rated on a four-point scale ranging from "excellent" to "weak" -on both quality of services and use of resources (financial management).

Click Here to read more about our 'Excellent' rating by the Healthcare Commission.

ENDS

Media contact : Jo Triggs tel: (01245) 514235 | Mobile : 0790 005 4948