21 May 2018

The Trust that runs Shropshire’s two acute hospitals has been named as one of the top performers in the country.

The Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust (SaTH), which runs Telford’s Princess Royal Hospital (PRH) and the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital (RSH), has been named one of the CHKS Top Hospitals for 2018.

The Top Hospitals awards are data driven and this year, for the first time, the award considers all trusts in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

The data comes from the information that is regularly submitted by hospitals to NHS Digital to help track performance in a number of areas, including quality of care and patient safety. The performance indicators cover: safety, clinical effectiveness, health outcomes, efficiency, patient experience and quality of care.

Simon Wright, Chief Executive at SaTH, said: “Everyone at SaTH is proud to serve the people of our county and this recognition of our improvement in our journey to become the safest and kindest NHS Trust is a significant step.

“We want to be known for safe, kind and compassionate care, and therefore it is a great honour to have our work recognised by CHKS as one of the top trusts in the UK.

“We know we still have more work to do to get to the place we want to be, but this award is a great reflection of the hard work, pride and commitment shown by our staff.”

Niall Dickson, Chief Executive of the NHS Confederation, which represents organisations across the healthcare system, said: “The NHS across the UK is doing great things. Too often we dwell on the challenges – and there are plenty – but the CHKS Top Hospitals awards recognise and celebrate the great strides that are being made to improve the quality and safety of care patients receive.

“These awards have become hugely respected not least because they are based on objective data. They offer a great way for hospitals to benchmark their activity and share ideas and best practice.”

The CHKS Top Hospitals programme awards were held in London on the 15 May and hosted by NHS Confederation chief executive, Niall Dickson with guest speaker Dr Ed Coates.

Over 200 guests including leaders from across the healthcare sector attended the event.