NHS Bradford and Airedale has performed well in the Annual Health Check according to performance ratings published today (15 October) by the Care Quality Commission (CQC).
The organisation, which is the local leader of the NHS across the district, has made significant improvements in meeting the national NHS targets, is performing particularly well in a number of key areas and has improved its rating to ‘fair good’.
This is the third time NHS Bradford and Airedale – which is responsible for making sure health services are in place to meet the needs of more than 500,000 people living across the district – has received an annual performance rating given to all NHS Trusts across the country.
Based on information provided from April 2008 to March 2009 the CQC said NHS Bradford and Airedale had scored ‘fair’ for the quality of the services it commissions and ‘good’ on how well the organisation’s resources are used. This is an improvement on last year’s rating (see notes) and demonstrates how the organisation continuously strives to improve its performance to meet the rising criteria that the Annual Health Check is measured by.
The CQC found that NHS Bradford and Airedale has fully met all 24 core standards which are measured by 43 indicators covering areas such as public health, care environment and amenities, accessibility and responsiveness care, patient focus, clinical and cost effectiveness, governance and safety. The CQC also awarded the organisation a rating of ‘excellent’ for being only one of two Primary Care Trusts to achieve all national priorities.
The review also identified areas where NHS Bradford and Airedale is taking the lead and making improvements in a range of areas which have helped to sustain and enhance our performance against the existing targets and new national priorities including:
- improved access to crisis mental health services
- continued achievement of the 18 week referral to treatment standard for hospital treatment
- achievement of challenging targets around smoking cessation
- increased uptake for the range of childhood immunisations
- a significant increase in the percentage of 15-24 year olds accessing Chlamydia screening, from 4% in 2007/08 to 15% in 2008/09
- reduced levels of C. difficile across the district
- shorter waiting times for patients needing cancer treatment
- an improvement in the experience of patients, as measured by the GP patient survey
- better access to dental services
- making sure more pregnant women are seen within 12 weeks.
Simon Morritt, chief executive of NHS Bradford and Airedale, said: “We are really pleased with the outcome of the latest round of ratings from the CQC as they show that we have made significant progress since last year’s assessment.
“We are making real improvements around access by offering patients more choice and flexibility with primary care services, such as extending GP opening times and supporting practices to look at how they can open for longer hours too, in addition to offering a broader range of services.
“We will concentrate our efforts on areas which the CQC has highlighted as needing some improvement and believe we are in a strong position to continue to improve and achieve the best possible patient care for all our communities.”
NHS Bradford and Airedale’s partner organisations achieved the following results.
- Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust – quality of services: good, use of resources: excellent
- Airedale NHS Trust – quality of services: excellent, use of resources: good
- Bradford District Care Trust – quality of services: fair, use of resources: good.
15th October 2009
