West Midlands hospitals ranked: NHS league tables show improvement needed for trusts in Black Country and Staffordshire
New 'league tables' released by the Department of Health show mixed results around the performance of emergency hospitals and services across the Black Country, Staffordshire and Wyre Forest.
The league tables of the best and worst-performing NHS trusts in England have been published by the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) for the first time.
The data in the league tables ranks NHS trusts across in England, including acute trusts, non-acute trusts, and ambulance trusts and shows mixed results where hospitals in the region are concerned.
Each section of the list is subdivided into four performance categories.
Segment one shows high-performing organisations with no specific support needs and who gain greater autonomy, while segment two shows organisations that do not require the most intensive support but may need some attention.
Segment three shows organisations considered for further attention and intervention from NHS England and relevant integrated care boards, while segment four shows poorly performing organisations that require mandatory, intensive support and intervention from national and regional teams.
These organisations may enter a diagnostic review to determine if they will enter the new Provider Improvement Programme called segment five.
Trusts are ranked within their category based on a “score” that has been determined by averaging their performance against a range of targets, such as reducing waiting times for treatment and for being seen in A&E departments, or improving ambulance response times.
The first table was for acute trusts, which manage public hospitals and provide secondary (hospital-based) care for conditions requiring short-term treatment, such as a severe injury, illness, or surgery.
Only one acute trust across the West Midlands was ranked in segment one, with The Royal Orthopaedic Hospital Trust, Birmingham ranked 14th overall.
The majority of the region's acute trusts were ranked in segment three, with The Dudley Group NHS Foundation Trust (Medium) 33rd, Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust (Small) 36th, Birmingham Women’s & Children’s NHS Foundation Trust (Specialist) joint 46th, The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust (Large) joint 77th, University Hospitals of North Midlands NHS Trust (Teaching) joint 83rd and Sandwell & West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust (Large) 88th.
One trust was ranked in segment four, with Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust (Large) ranked 110th nationally.
There was also a ranking for non-acute trusts, referring to long-term, maintenance, or preventative care for conditions that are not urgent or life-threatening.
There was better news for trusts from the region as two were rated as the top two in the country in segment one, with North Staffordshire Combined Healthcare NHS Trust (Mental Health & Learning Disability) 1st and Midlands Partnership NHS Foundation Trust (Mental Health & Learning Disability) 2nd.
Three other trusts didn't fare as well, being ranked in segment four, with Black Country Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust (Mental Health & Learning Disability) joint 46th, Birmingham & Solihull Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust (Mental Health & Learning Disability) 55th and Birmingham Community Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust (Community) 61st and bottom of the table.
Finally, West Midlands Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust was ranked sixth overall in the table for ambulance trusts, ranked under segment three.
The majority of the top 10 best-performing hospitals were specialist trusts, with number one being Moorfields Eye Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, followed by the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital NHS Trust, and The Christie NHS Foundation Trust.
Under the plans by the DHSC, higher standards will also be set for leaders, with pay tied to performance.
Senior managers at trusts that are persistently ranked poorly could see their pay docked, while NHS leaders will have extra pay incentives to go into challenged trusts and turn them around.
Meanwhile, those in the middle will be encouraged to learn from trusts at the top to help them improve their rankings.
Health Secretary Wes Streeting said: “We must be honest about the state of the NHS to fix it.
"Patients and taxpayers have to know how their local NHS services are doing compared to the rest of the country.
“These league tables will identify where urgent support is needed and allow high-performing areas to share best practices with others, taking the best of the NHS to the rest of the NHS.
“Patients know when local services aren’t up to scratch and they want to see an end to the postcode lottery and that’s what this Government is doing.”
From next summer, the tables will be expanded to cover integrated care boards, which are responsible for planning health services at a local level, and wider areas of NHS performance.
Sir James Mackey, chief executive of NHS England, said giving patients access to more data “will help to drive improvement even faster by supporting them to identify where they should demand even better from their NHS”.
Here is a list of selected NHS trusts and their rank in England. Each section is subdivided into four performance categories, with category one containing the best performing trusts and category four containing those with the poorest performance. Trusts are ranked within their category based on a “score” that has been determined by averaging their performance against a range of targets, such as reducing waiting times for treatment and for being seen in A&E departments, or improving ambulance response times.
The lower the score, the better the performance.
Acute trusts:
Category one 14th The Royal Orthopaedic, Birmingham 1.97
Category two
27 Robert Jones & Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic 2.31
Category three:
33 Dudley Group 1.90
36 Walsall Healthcare 1.97
=46 Birmingham Women’s & Children’s 2.1
=79 Royal Wolverhampton 2.45
=83 University Hospitals of North Midlands 2.47
88 Sandwell & West Birmingham Hospitals 2.49
Category four:110 Worcestershire Acute Hospitals 2.68
113 The Shrewsbury & Telford Hospital 2.72
Non-acute trusts:
Category one:
1 North Staffordshire Combined Healthcare 1.73
2 Midlands Partnership 1.74
Category two:
=17 Shropshire Community Health 2.16
Category four:
=46 Black Country Healthcare 2.67
55 Birmingham & Solihull Mental Health 2.90
61 Birmingham Community Healthcare 3.34
Ambulance trusts:
Category one
1 North West 1.82
2 East Midlands 1.84
3 Yorkshire 1.86
Category two
4 South East Coast 2.28
5 North East 2.32
Category three
6 West Midlands 2.15
7 London 2.47
Category four
8 South Central 2.75
9 South Western 2.91
10 East of England 3.02
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