Weston General Hospital - Performance

Performance

The Healthcare Commission, an independent body which promotes and drives quality healthcare in the United Kingdom, has inspected Weston General Hospital and published its findings. In the 2005/2006 period, on the quality of the healthcare it provided the hospital was rated as weak on a four point scale of weak, fair, good and excellent. This placed the hospital in the bottom performing 9% of trusts in the country. On the same scale the hospital's use of resources was also rated weak, placing it in the bottom 37% of trusts in the country. In the 2006/2007 period, the hospital's quality of healthcare score was upgraded to fair, but its use of resources rating remained at weak.

The hospital, like others, has had problems with hospital acquired infections such as MRSA and Clostridium difficile (C. diff). In 2003 the trust had the highest rate of MRSA infections in the country. In August 2007 the hospital was criticised in the local press following the death of a 75 year old cancer patient from C diff. Responding the hospital stated that it had reduced infection rates by 25% through 2007. Performance figures released by the trust in September 2007 showed that hospital acquired infection rates had fallen further with just one case of MRSA in August and 18 of C.Diff, compared with more than 30 just a few months previous. These improvements are attributed to a new "bare below the elbow" initiative to ensure that staff clean their hands and wrists, plus regular steam cleaning of patient beds.

On 7 July 2003, BBC Television programme Inside Out broadcast allegations from a whistleblower that senior management within the hospital were putting pressure on employees to manipulate waiting list statistics to make them look more favourable. An independent enquiry in 2004 concluded that this manipulation did take place. In 2006, one of the managers named by Inside Out lost a libel case against the BBC, which had alleged that she was involved in the falsification of waiting lists. Waiting lists are still a problem – in 2006 the hospital was one of only eight in the country that failed to reduce waiting times for treatment.