New NHS Trust Performance League Tables Published
The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) has released league tables ranking NHS trusts in an effort to improve standards of care for patients.
Every trust in England will be ranked quarterly against a range of services, ranging from urgent and emergency care to elective operations and mental health services.
Top-performing trusts will be rewarded with greater freedoms and investment, while underperforming trusts will "receive targeted support". NHS England has suggested that senior leaders will be held accountable by performance-linked pay, with extra pay incentives to go into challenged trusts.
The Government believes that this will strengthen transparency and drive performance improvements across England’s NHS.
Organisational performance in the NHS is a complex concept to express simply, and some stakeholders have expressed concerns that a single ranking can hide variations in performance across key areas and even hospital sites.
Responding to the announcement, Healthwatch England Deputy Chief Executive Chris McCann said:
"People want clarity on how their local NHS is doing, and so many will welcome the aspiration to make this easier to understand.
"But if a service is struggling, transparency must come with accountability. Patients need to know what's being done to fix the problem, and when it will improve.
“Any league table must inform not confuse people. It will be essential that the new dashboard clearly communicates the information that is most important to patients and that it is as accessible as possible.”
