Barts and The London services “excellent” says national health watchdog

18 October 2007

Barts and The London NHS Trust has once again achieved the highest possible rating for its quality of services in a major national survey.   

In its ‘annual health check ratings’ published today (Thursday 18 October 2007), independent health watchdog, the Healthcare Commission, rated the services at the Trust’s three hospitals – Barts in the City, The Royal London in Whitechapel and The London Chest in Bethnal Green – as “excellent” for the second successive year.  Barts and The London is the only major teaching hospital in the capital to achieve the “excellent” rating two years running and the only hospital trust in East London to be awarded the top rating. The Trust also maintained its ‘good’ rating for the efficiency with which it uses NHS resources. 

The Healthcare Commission believe this year’s health check ratings are the most comprehensive assessment of the NHS ever to take place. It examined every hospital in the country during the past financial year to see how they were performing against a range of measures, including how long patients wait for treatment, patient safety, cleanliness and how well the organisation is run.  Barts and The London scored highly overall.  The ratings build on an already strong track record, including one of Britain’s best survival rate records and seven unbroken years of achieving break even or better.

“Maintaining our ‘excellent’ quality rating is a huge achievement,” said Julian Nettel, Chief Executive of Barts and The London NHS Trust.  “Sustaining high performance in this way is never easy, particularly when the bar is set higher every year.  We can take pride in our accomplishment, but it is certainly not a time to sit back.  The standards we need to achieve this year are even more exacting, and we will need to maintain a sense of urgency in our service improvement if we are to maintain our top quality rating.”

Contact: Malcolm Bennie 020 7480 4843 or Michelle Alexander 020 7480 4892 For further information about Barts and The London NHS Trust contact the Press Office on tel. 020 7480 4891/92/43.

- ENDS -

Notes for editors

For further information about the Healthcare Commission contact the Press Office on tel. 0207 448 9401. The Annual Health Check ratings are available via the Internet at www.healthcarecommission.org.uk

Barts and The London NHS Trust is one of the UK’s top teaching hospital trusts. There were just under 780,000 patient attendances at the Trust’s three hospitals – Barts in the City, The Royal London in Whitechapel and The London Chest in Bethnal Green – last year.

< Back