By Gillian Ellison

Published at 11:10, Thursday, 19 May 2011

THE health trust which runs West Cumberland Hospital and the Cumberland Infirmary, Carlisle, has been named as one of the top 40 in the country.

It’s the third year running that the North Cumbria University Hospitals Trust has picked up the accolade at the CHKS 40 Top Hospitals.

The awards celebrate excellence and are based on the evaluation of 21 key performance indicators covering safety, clinical effectiveness, health outcomes, efficiency, patient experience and quality of care.

The winners were announced at an awards ceremony in London last week hosted by CHKS, the UK’s leading independent provider of healthcare intelligence and quality improvement services.

Carole Heatly, trust chief executive, said: “I am delighted that once again our hospitals in North Cumbria have been recognised nationally and we are among the top 40 best performing in the country for the third year in a row.

“It is a great credit to all our clinical staff and teams and shows that we are continually driving for clinical excellence and delivering the best for our patients.

“Patient access and quality of care is always at the top of our agenda and we have continued to deliver on both of these ensuring we have met the 18 week target from GP referral to delivery of hospital care and reducing our infection rates dramatically. So much so, we have not had a case of MRSA at either of our hospitals in the last 10 months.”

Prof Vicki Bruce OBE has been appointed to serve as a non-executive director of the trust.

She is head of the School of Psychology at Newcastle University.

Published by http://www.whitehavennews.co.uk