England & Wales

Independent analysis of the performance of NHS hospital trusts during 2010.

The Dr Foster Hospital Guide for 2010

The revised Dr Foster Hospital Guide for 2010 shows that while mortality rates have shown an improvement on last year’s figures and there is less variation between hospitals, 19 hospital trusts had high hospital standardised mortality ratios while four trusts had high ratios for deaths after surgery.

Two of the trusts, Hull and East Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust and University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust, were high in both of those categories. The guide also shows that standards vary widely in the treatment of life-threatening conditions with many trusts falling short of best practice and also wide variations in the rates of emergency readmissions.

Airedale was voted the small trust of the year for a fourth time with strong performances in clinical outcomes, safety and patient experience.   The report also said that in the year 2009-10 nearly 10,000 patients suffered an accidental puncture or laceration, over 2,000 had post-operative intestinal bleeding, over 13,000 women received an obstetric tear while giving birth, over 30,000 patients developed a blood clot and 1,300 developed blood poisoning after surgery.

For more information on specific hospital performance we would recommend that you view the "patient safety" ratings which are recorded on the Dr Foster website.

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) have yet to publish any recent data which can be compared and contrasted to the Dr Foster Guide but previously the CQC analysis was found to be inconsistent. Their report dated October 2009 was criticised in the national press.

The data compiled by the Dr Foster research team has been received from various sources including the National Patient Safety Agency. TThe public can make their own mind up about which information they wish to reply upon.

The Dr Foster performance ratings 2009 are listed below (in alphabetical order):

HIGHEST SCORES:

• Airedale NHS Trust
•  Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust
•  Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
•  Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
•  East Kent Hospitals University NHS Foundation Trust
•  Frimley Park Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
•  Guys and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust
•  Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust
•  Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust
•  North Bristol NHS Trust
•  South Tees Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
•  St Georges Healthcare NHS Trust
•  Trafford Healthcare NHS Trust
•  University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

The TOP performing trust according to the report was: University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

LOWEST SCORES:

•  Basildon and Thurrock University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
•  Blackpool, Fylde and Wyre Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
•  Hereford Hospitals NHS Trust
•  Mid Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust
•  Scarborough and North East Yorkshire Health Care NHS Trust
•  South London Healthcare NHS Trust
•  St Helens and Knowsley Hospitals NHS Trust
•  Tameside Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
•  The Lewisham Hospital NHS Trust
•  University Hospital of South Manchester NHS Foundation Trust
•  University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust
•  Weston Area Health NHS Trust

Please read the full Dr Foster Hospital Guide for 2009 by clicking here.

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