SHEFFIELD Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has been named Hospital Trust of the Year for the second time in three years.
The trust – which runs the Royal Hallamshire, Northern General, Weston Park, Charles Clifford and Jessop Wing hospitals – fought off competition from the best-performing NHS hospitals in the country to win the independently assessed award.
Inspect
ors from the Dr Foster Good Hospital Guide looked in depth at issues such as safety, quality of care, waiting times, cleanliness of the hospitals, prevention of hospital-acquired infections such as MRSA and how responsive the organisation was to patients.
Andrew Cash, chief executive of Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, said: "I am delighted that everyone's hard work and dedication has been recognised by being named the top performing hospital trust in the UK.
"It's the icing on the cake for us, as it comes just a few weeks after receiving a 'double excellent' rating for the quality of our services and financial management in the Healthcare Commission's annual performance ratings for the second year running.
"This award is also testament to the excellent staff who work for the other health and social care partners across this region."
More than a million people are treated in Sheffield hospitals each year. The trust comandeers an annual budget of £690m.
To be shortlisted for the award, Sheffield Teaching Hospitals had to demonstrate its efficiency in a number of fields.
Benchmarks included more than 60% of stroke patients receiving a CT scan within 24 hours; more than 50 of hip fractures being operated on within 48 hours; and an average stay of no longer than ten days for hip and knee replacements.
Other key factors included general satisfaction among patients, adherence to the 18-week waiting limit and low rates of MRSA.
The Northern General Hospital's kidney unit has one of the lowest rates of superbug infection – with just one case of MRSA in the last two years.
Initiatives to prevent infection speading include ward cleaning, hand hygiene, screening, staff determination, monitoring and new technologies for preventing infection of dialysis catheters.
High-risk patients are screened weekly and medical staff and patients receive specialist training to prevent infection.
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