Health chiefs have thanked staff for their efforts in improving the ratings of hospital and primary care trusts for Canterbury over the last year.

East Kent Hospitals University NHS Trust and Eastern and Coastal Kent Primary Care Trust have both improved, according to performance ratings published by the Healthcare Commission.

The PCT went up from “weak” in 2006/07 to “fair” this year in the quality of services category. Over the same period it rose from “fair” to “good” in use of resources.

The hospitals trust, which is in charge of Kent and Canterbury Hospital, went up from “weak” to “fair” in use of resources and maintained its status of “fair” for quality of services.

Stuart Bain, chief executive of the hospitals trust, said: “I am delighted to see that overall we have improved since last year but disappointed that the excellent work our staff have been doing has not been fully recognised.

“Because the information for this survey was collected some months ago its conclusions are inevitably out of date.

“We are described as fair in the use of resources when we should be excellent because we achieved a £7.5million surplus last year and are predicting over £12million this year.”

Ann Sutton, PCT chief executive, said: “I am delighted to see that all the hard work over the past year has paid off.

“I would like to personally pay tribute to the dedication and hard work of all PCT staff in achieving these results.”