Weston General Hospital trust 'is under performing'
The body that runs Weston General Hospital has been criticised as "significantly under performing", but its Bristol neighbours are faring much better.
Weston Area Health Trust was criticised for failing over basic safety measures by an independent report.
The trust was one of 12 criticised in analysis by the independent Dr Foster's organisation.
North Bristol NHS Trust was in the top dozen performers in the tables, while University Hospitals Bristol NHS Foundation Trust also scored highly.
The report has provoked controversy because some of the health trusts that were rated worst for patient safety had been judged good or excellent by the official health regulator the Care Quality Commission (CQC).
The Conservatives are now calling for an overhaul of the inspection regime, saying the data highlights an extraordinary contrast between the Dr Foster and "box ticking" official assessments.
Weston, which was rated fair by the CQC, was one of those trusts said to be significantly under performing.
The trust responded by issuing a statement saying it had "nationally recognised indicators" that showed it was delivering safe care and its mortality rate was well within the national average.
The statement said: "The trust answered Dr Foster's questionnaire honestly and in good faith and was alerted by Dr Foster that its score had been lowered by the responses to the questions on National Patient Safety Agency alerts.
"We can confirm that we are fully compliant in this area and the query was never about our delivery of care, but about whether we had a policy or procedure in place."
The figures show that nationally, more than 5,000 people died in a year after going into hospital for routine surgery.
But UH Bristol and North Bristol both scored well for having low "hospital standardised mortality rates".
Dr Foster's also highlights other patient safety concerns at various trusts such as swabs and drill bits left inside patients after surgery in at least 209 cases, and surgeons operated on the wrong body part at least 82 times.
Nationally, 478 operations were cancelled in 2008/09 because notes were missing.
The head of the Care Quality Commission, Baroness Young, said some of the Dr Foster data was "very legitimate" while some was "quite alarmist".
"Where they are good we will take them to account in our regulatory work, and where they are flaky we won't," she said.
"We do a comprehensive programme of monitoring, on a much more detailed level."
2 Comments
by Jon, Outside Bristol
Monday, November 30 2009, 12:17PM
“Dr Fosters is a private company who make their money from providing healthcare "information".
The only statistics which matter are those from CQC.”
by Grahame P, Central Bristol
Monday, November 30 2009, 10:42AM
“Dr Foster cites Weston Area Health Trust as significantly under-performing and one of the twelve worst health trusts in the country and yet it gets a 'fair' rating from the CQC. A statement from the trust seeks to assuage fears and describes their failings as more 'procedural' than anything else. Without wanting to be unfair to Weston, which doesn't seem to have higher than average mortality rates, the problem the public faces is one of trust.
The CQC, for example, gave Basildon a 'good' rating shortly before it was panned for bad hygiene and far too many patient deaths (31% over the national average). Their 'detailed monitoring' didn't reveal endemic problems or put those problems right over the 5 years it recorded consistently higher mortality rates. Part of the problem is that hospitals are able to self-assess; and Basildon managers gave themselves 13 out of 14 marks for safety and cleanliness only weeks before the damning inspection report was drawn up.
Weston doesn't seem to be afflicted in the same way, but it is a flagship trust. Gaining this status meant staff received a 15% pay rise. This is also the hospital which reportedly only spent 50p a day on patient food last year. Weston residents may be glad they don't live in Basildon, but leaving aside Dr Foster's 'under-performing' assessment, is a 'fair' rating by the CQC really good enough when 'excellent' is what we're paying an extra 15% for? One other thing; tinned dog food costs more than 50p a day!”