Hospital hits rock bottom in government star ratings

THE Royal Free hospital has been given a zero star rating in Whitehall’s annual survey of the NHS.
Last time the Hampstead trust was inspected, it received two stars out of a possible three.
Inspectors cited a massive budget deficit of £10.2m as the main reason behind the hospitals poor ranking.
But the Trust’s chief executive Andrew Way hit out at the Health Care Commission’s rating, claiming the bottom-of-the-class report were solely down to non-clinical aspects of running the hospital. He added the stars rating system would hit staff confidence and worry patients.
He said: “We are incredibly disappointed because it will lower staff morale who feel their hard work has not been reflected and raise patient concerns that are unfounded.
“I am not querying the zero-star rating. We want to be a three-star hospital and we accept it. But the reason we scored no stars is down to the deficit, not the competence of our staff.
He added the hospital, whose medics were praised in the House of Commons after treating 61 people after the July 7 bomb attacks, offered a “world class” service to patients. He said: “After the attacks we saw that the medical staff can do a world-class job. There isn’t a problem with clinical care here.”
The report assesses key aspects of each hospital, including waiting lists, finance, accident and emergency discharge times, cancer waiting lists and hygiene.
Points are awarded for failure – six being the worst, zero being the best.
The Royal Free scored six points – the worst it could have done – on finance because of their cash problems.
It also scored two points for accident and emergency discharge times and two points for the state of some hospital lavatories.
And according to the Healthcare commission, Whitehall’s NHS, watchdog, one on four hospital trusts were in the red in 2004/05 – and said failing to meet financial targets was a key factor in poor star ratings across the NHS. The 590 trusts in England are in debt to a combined total of more than £500m.
A hospital spokesman told the New Journal they were working to slash the deficit. Three wards – around 84 beds – would be cut, and there has been a freeze on employing expensive agency staff. The Trust spent £23m out of a total wage bill of £198m on temporary staff in 2004 /05.
The spokesman said: “We are looking at redesigning the way that patients are admitted and sorted out, ensuring that decisions are made in a more timely manner so they can be discharged home or elsewhere sooner. That’s better for patients, who don’t want to be in hospital any longer than they have to be, and it means we need fewer beds. In this way we will reduce our reliance on agency staff.”
Mr Way added: “Each ward costs us about £8m a year. We will cut three wards in the tower over the next three months and begin a 100 per cent reduction in agency staff next week. I want to stress that we will not be treating fewer patients, we will be dealing with them in a more efficient way.
“We cannot continue in this position. We have to act now. In some ways the ratings have given us a welcome wake up call – it will change the way we deal with patients and make the hospital more efficient.”