National results
See how the performance of your local NHS organisation compares with the rest of England and explore the findings on the independent sector in more depth. Please note: The standards used to assess healthcare organisations in the NHS and independent sector are similar but are not directly comparable.
The independent healthcare sector
The NHS
The results of the Healthcare Commission's first annual health check show that many NHS trusts are performing well, but there was some room for improvement.
The annual health check scores NHS trusts on many aspects of their performance including how well they manage their finances (use of resources) and the quality of the services they provide to patients and the public (quality of services). For the first time, trust boards are held responsible for hitting standards.
Key findings
In 2005/2006, 40% of trusts were given a score of 'excellent' or 'good' for quality of services and 15% scored 'excellent' or 'good' for use of resources. These trusts deserve real praise for doing well in the first year of a more comprehensive and tougher assessment. Two trusts scored 'excellent' for both parts of this year's rating:
- Harrogate and District NHS Foundation Trust
- The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust
A majority of trusts were 'fair', which means that they need to improve in some areas. There were broad areas of concern among those that scored weak.
Read national press release (pdf 53kb)
Read full analysis of results (pdf 2.1MB)
Regional breakdown of results - north (pdf 55kb)
Regional breakdown of results - London and south east (pdf 56kb)
Regional breakdown of results - south west (pdf 56kb)
Regional breakdown of results - central (pdf 55kb)
National results for quality of services
National results for use of resources
The independent healthcare sector
Patients should be clear that independent providers are inspected against more prescriptive standards than is the case in the NHS. But these standards are important and they must be met.
In October, the Commission published its annual State of Health Report, which for the first time gave an overall national picture of performance in the independent sector against core minimum standards. Patients can now also find out how individual independent providers faired against each of those standards, at the time of inspection.
Key findings
In the acute sector:
- 6% of establishments met all 32 core standards
- 33% met at least 29 core standards
- 6% were 'not met' on five or more core standards
Looking at core standards in the acute sector where compliance was highest:
- 98% met the core standard surrounding the sensitive and appropriate handling of death (core standard 5)
- 98% met the core standard relating to the ability of personnel to express concerns (core standard 16)
- 94% met the core standard relating to the provision of appropriate catering services (core standard 19)
Looking at core standards in the acute sector where there was room for improvement:
- 10% were "not met" on the core standard relating to appropriately completed health records (cs 30)
- 8% were "not met" on the core standard relating to appropriately recruited, trained and qualified healthcare professionals. (This relates to cs 10 which refers specifically to trained and qualified healthcare professionals - people who work for but are not directly employed by the organisation, as opposed to staff covered by standard cs 9)
- 8% were "not met" on the core standard relating to minimisation of health care associated infection. (c 25)
Our State of Healthcare report in 2006 highlighted that independent providers of mental healthcare were 'not met' on a relatively high number of standards. The NHS pays for around 80% of the patients using these services, including people detained under the Mental Health Act.
In the mental health sector:
- 3% all 32 core standards
- 18% met at least 29 core standards
- 17% were "not met" on five or more core standards
There are 21 independent sector treatment centres, many newly registered. Inspections have been completed at 11 centres. While compliance was generally good, there remains room for improvement.
Compare national results
You can see the national results for the NHS and explore the findings of our inspections of the independent healthcare sector using the search function below. Select the area that you're interested in and see how healthcare organisations are performing across England for a specific standard, target or indicator.
