Uttlesford Primary Care Trust is fighting back from a one star Commission for Health Improvement performance rating, claiming that headline scores obscured positive aspects of its work.

The board of the Trust, which is responsible for the health care of 70,300 Uttlesford people, say that the PCT has made "significant progress" in the last 12 months in a number of key areas, including coronary heart disease, cancer death rates, circulatory disease and diabetes.

After analysing the implications of the single star, the "obviously disappointed" board members concluded this week that they also had cause to be "extremely encouraged" by performance indicators giving a positive picture of the PCT's achievements during 2002-2003

Star ratings reflected only a small part of its work within the community and did not necessarily reflect some of the priority health needs of the district, say the board

The rating also did not take account of the hard work undertaken by local GPs and their staff, the PCT itself and its board

But the Trust, says the board, is treating its one star as a learning experience, and is about to start an improvement programme so as to achieve three stars, a requirement for all zero, one and two star NHS organisations.

Essex Strategic Health Authority has to sign off all improvement programmes by October 31

The Trust's chief executive, Peta Wilkinson, stressed it would be wrong for the public to assume the rating meant that the PCT was a poorly performing organisation

She said: "We achieved six of the nine key performance indicators, including those for hospital waiting times for inpatients, outpatients, and accident and emergency patients. It is also our understanding that we missed two of the remaining three key indicators by a hair's breadth."

Published Thursday, August 7, 2003

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