‘Excellent’ quality of services achieved in annual health check

NHS Heywood, Middleton and Rochdale has achieved an ‘Excellent’ rating for its Quality of Services in the Healthcare Commission’s annual health check.

This top score, which only nine Primary Care Trusts in the country achieved, shows how well the PCT is performing against various targets and standards.

NHS HMR achieved ‘Good’ for the second part of the health check - Use of Resources - which looks at financial management and value for money.

Overall, this places the PCT within the top 7% of best performing PCTs in the country, and in the top five PCTs in the North West.

Trevor Purt, Chief Executive of NHS HMR said: “We are delighted with these results which are a substantial and significant improvement from last year. To achieve ‘excellent’ for Quality of Services and ‘good’ for Use of Resources’ is truly magnificent and demonstrates the commitment and hard work of all our staff. I’m pleased they are getting the recognition they deserve.

“Last year, we committed ourselves to improving the quality of services and improving the health of the Borough and these results show we are well on target. We want to ensure we are giving our patients and public the best possible services to add years to life and life to years.

“We recognise however, that there are areas that we need to improve on, including increasing access to GPs within 48 hours, but we are making significant progress in making this happen."

Local patient, Barbara Allen from Rochdale, said: “The Healthcare Commission results are fantastic and we truly believe our local PCT is being awarded what it deserves. Not only are we seeing improvements in our local health services, with new health centres being built and care being provided closer to home, but we are also seeing improvements in the health of the local population. The PCT really are delivering on what they said they would last year."

The Rochdale Patients' Council have congratulated NHS Heywood Middleton and Rochdale on the results.

Paul Mainwaring, Chairman of the Patients Council, said: “These are really impressive results and are wholly deserved by the local NHS and its hard working staff. We are seeing vast improvements in our health services and are seeing the health of our local population improve. The Patients council would like to thank the local NHS and its partners for its openness in achieving these results."

Rochdale’s Labour Parliamentary Candidate, Simon Danczuk, echoed those sentiments.

He said: “It’s great news that our PCT has achieved an ‘excellent’ rating and well done to all the staff who are working very hard to provide good quality services. Moving from a rating of ‘fair’ last year to ‘excellent’ this year will not have been easy.

"There is no doubt that this sort of success is helped by positive and strong leadership within the PCT and I commend both the Chief Executive and Chairman, they really are a credit to the communities they serve.”