A Kent hospital trust has been ranked as one of the ‘weakest’ NHS organisations in England.

Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells Hospital Trust was top of the charts, along with three other PCT trusts that failed to meet the Government’s standards in healthcare.

The findings have come from the Healthcare Commission as part of its annual health check-up of all NHS Trusts in England.

The Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells Hospital Trust, however, did meet two out of the three hygiene standards, regarding infection-control and decontamination of equipment, but it still needed to improve its cleanliness levels.

Glenn Douglas, chief executive of Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells Hospital, was confident the trust was making good progress under new leadership and raising standards in patient care.

He said: “A new management team is now in place at the Trust and raising standards of patient care.

“This review is about the Trust’s well-documented past. We are now seeing major improvements in patient care which are being led by a new Board chaired by George Jenkins and supported by new non-executive Directors.”

A spokesman from the Healthcare Commission said: “The Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust has not got worse, but they have not got any better. They have similar levels of non-compliance as last year.”

There are 24 core standards that each NHS trust is evaluated against. This includes safety, dignity in care and staff training.

Eastern and Coastal Kent Primary Care Trust, which looks after five community hospitals, came out as one of the most improved trusts.

The PCT has improved by 38 per cent, meeting targets in infection control and creating a hygienic environment.

But work still needed to be around staff training and decontamination of medical equipment, which the PCT says has now been addressed.

The county picture

Dartford and Gravesham NHS Trust was one of the best health trusts in the county but has to work on promoting equality and respecting human rights.

Ashford and St Peter’s NHS Trust equally did well but needed to focus more on staff training.

East Kent Hospitals NHS Trust complied with all standards except having systems in place to ensure waste disposal is properly managed to minimise health risk.

Medway NHS Trust met all standards except for ensuring reusable medical equipment was properly decontaminated and waste disposal was properly managed too.

West Kent PCT met most targets, but failed some that included ensuring staff continuously update skills and techniques relevant to their clinical work and needs to work on promoting equality and respect within the organization.

Factfile on Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust

It saw a 41 per cent drop in cases of MRSA bacteraemia in the 12 months leading up to the end of March 2007/08.

It also reduced cases of Clostridium difficile by 34 per cent over the same period.

The number of cases of C.difficile in hospitals is reported nationally by the Health Protection Agency every three months. The number of patients over the age of 65 with C.difficile fell in every quarter of 2007/08 at the Trust.

Rates of C.difficile continue to fall. The Trust is now seeing some of the lowest cases of the infection in the country. It is also sharing its best practice in infection control nationwide.