Failings in West Kent healthcare revealed
The Healthcare Commission's annual health check shows both the hospital trust and the primary care trust were among the bottom five per cent in the country for health services.
It rated 391 NHS bodies from April 2007 to March 2008 against 24 core standards and classed both trusts' quality of services as weak – the lowest ranking available.
Both organisations failed to meet national targets for A&E and inpatient waiting times and both did not meet the standard for decontaminating re-usable medical equipment.
However for use of resources, which includes the financial situation, both trusts were classed as fair – an improvement on last year's weak rating.
Chief executive of NHS West Kent Steve Phoenix said being dubbed weak for quality of services – a drop from last year's fair rating – was a "big disappointment. It is in due part to issues that have been longstanding in West Kent. Furthermore, it is no secret that 2007-08 was a turbulent year for the local health economy in West Kent."
NHS West Kent, which was formed in October 2006 under the name West Kent Primary Care Trust, was also flagged up for delayed discharges and failure to meet targets in offering eye screening for people with diabetes.
The PCT did score highly on issues of safety and cleanliness and treating patients with respect and dignity.
Mr Phoenix said: "We are on a journey to improve services and I am confident that we are making steady progress."
"We are focusing with our colleagues in the hospital trusts on cutting waiting times for A&E and for inpatients and outpatients appointments."
Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust chief executive Glenn Douglas said the weak rating for quality of services was based on a "critical self-assessment" of its performance in 2007.
The trust's management reported its failure to meet 19 out of 43 core standards to the HCC in April, which then reviewed the self-assessed scores.
Mr Douglas added: "What we are seeing today is a reflection of where the trust was for the best part of 2007.
"It is not somewhere we want to be again, but as a new board we felt only the most critical self-assessment of the trust's performance during 2007 would help us move on, and move on we have."
A damning HCC report, which revealed 90 people had died from the killer superbug c diff at Kent and Sussex, Maidstone, and Pembury hospitals, was published a year ago.
Since then the trust has recorded the lowest levels of c diff in the South East, trebled the number of patients being seen and treated within 18 weeks of GP referral and employed more than 100 nurses, midwives and clinical support workers.
Trust chairman George Jenkins said: "If we couldn't justify areas of good performance for all our patients throughout last year we rated ourselves down.
"Being brutally honest has been hard at times, but it is also helping us rebuild our organisation and the faith people have in us."
Comment on this story