The Island’s health services welcomed the Healthcare Commission’s annual health check which is being published this Thursday.

The annual health check replaces the star ratings system – it is a tougher but more relevant assessment than previously and gives a better picture of what is happening in the NHS. The health check focuses on two areas – quality of services and the use of resources.

The Island has received two sets of results for the former organisations – one for the Healthcare Trust (which includes acute, ambulance and mental health services) and one for the Primary Care Trust.

Top marks were achieved for financial reporting and internal control but the one low score for financial standing pulled down the overall score for use of resources to a weak.

The former Healthcare Trust achieved the majority of the new and existing national targets – MRSA, cancer, convenience and choice, inpatient and outpatient waiting times, A & E targets and waiting times for rapid access chest pain clinics.

Plans are in place to address the under achieved targets – one example is the recent appointment of a Consultant Nurse in Sexual and Reproductive Healthcare to improve access to Genito-urinary medicine (GUM) clinics.

The cancer targets are some of the most challenging to date. There are three different targets of: seeing a consultant within two weeks from GP for a suspected cancer, commencing treatment for cancer within 31 days of the decision to treat and the whole pathway from urgent referral from a GP though investigations to diagnosis and commencement of treatment within 62 days. Achievement of these targets significantly benefits patients and has been through tracking individual patients referred to the Trust to ensure that appointments, investigations and treatments are streamlined, alongside effective multidisciplinary team working and close working with our mainland cancer centre.

St Mary’s Hospital is one of the very few in the country to achieve such a low rate of MRSA and this is due to the high priority given by nursing and clinical staff across the hospital to good infection control practice, hand hygiene and the prudent use of antibiotics.

The island’s ambulance service has built on the performance of the previous two years when they achieved the maximum three star status and has again this year performed extremely well by meeting all the key targets and measures assessed by the Healthcare Commission for ambulance services nationally. This just confirms the excellent level of service that is delivered to the island’s population by the committed staff of the Isle of Wight Ambulance Service.

The Mental Health service targets relating to infection control, Crisis Resolution Team implementation, obesity target and audit of suicide prevention were all achieved.

Both the Healthcare Trust and PCT achieved the target of a smoke free NHS.

There were many accolades from patients in relation to the care provided by doctors and nurses but work needs to be done to improve the quality and timeliness of information for patients. We are currently exploring various initiatives to achieve these improvements.

The majority of the former Primary Care Trust ‘s targets were achieved – these included access to a GP within 48 hours, access to a pri mary care professional within 24 hours, 4 week quitters, blood pressure, breast cancer screening, cholesterol levels, GP recording of BMI and teenage conception rates.

There is further work to do to achieve the targets relating to community matrons and screening for the early detection of diabetic retinopathy

The Island achieved the highest possible score of 4 (excellent) in the Healthcare Commission’s review of tobacco control and stop smoking services. The scoring reflects the innovative approach that has been taken on the Island to raise awareness of the Stop Smoking Service. Advertising has been placed in the local paper (the County Press), on the back of buses, on the local radio station and also in the parish press.

The new Isle of Wight NHS Primary Care Trust welcomes the annual health check results as they give a clear picture of services performing well but also highlight areas which need further attention.

Notes for editors

The full results of the annual health check will be published by the Healthcare Commission on Thursday, 12 October on their website – www.healthcarecommission.org.uk