Addenbrooke’s staff celebrate clean bill of health.

Addenbrooke’s Hospital is celebrating a clean bill of health in the Healthcare Commission’s new ‘health check’, which measures what really matters to patients. The hospital achieved a score of ‘good’ for the quality of its services and ‘excellent’ for use of resources, showing the quality of its financial management.

Dr Gareth Goodier, Chief Executive, said: “We are delighted with the result, which is a tribute to the hard work of staff and reflects the many achievements made in the last year.”

This year’s health check revealed that Addenbrooke’s has been a high performer with all core standards being fully met. It also highlighted the excellent scores for waiting times for inpatients, outpatients and in the emergency department, as well as for patients seen in the Rapid Access Chest Clinic, and those who have been referred from their GPs for suspected cancer.

“This is good news for our patients, as we are performing well in areas that we know they are concerned about,” continued Gareth Goodier. “Since the data was collected, we have also made some great improvements in areas that we have previously performed less well in, for example we have reduced the number of patients whose transfer of care was delayed by working closely with colleagues in primary care trusts and Social Services. There has also been a steady decrease in infections such as MRSA, which is showing a year-on-year reduction of 9% with a further projected reduction for this year, and the incidence of Clostridium difficile-associated diarrhoea has fallen by 28%. We are not complacent, and recognise that there is still more to do. We are committed to continuing these improvements to attain the highest standards of care for our patients.”

The new health check is an annual exercise replacing the star ratings system. It includes a self-assessment section concentrating on the broader issues which aims to ‘measure what matters’ to patients, the public, clinicians and healthcare managers. The standards fall into seven categories: safety, clinical and cost effectiveness, governance, patient focus, accessible and responsive care, care environment and amenities and public health. For the first time the views on the quality of services have been included from our local community including patient and public representatives.

Notes to editors

For more information, see the Healthcare Commission website:

www.healthcarecommission.org.uk

Last updated: 12 October 2006