Twelve hospital trusts failing on safety

LONDON (Reuters) - Twelve National Health Service hospital trusts are significantly underperforming on basic safety, according to a report published by a health information body on Sunday.

Carried out by Dr Foster, an NHS partner organisation that collates and analyses healthcare data, the research also highlights 27 trusts with unusually high death rates.

Two days earlier, health watchdog Monitor sacked the chairman of Colchester Hospital University NHS Foundation Trust, accusing him of failing to cut high death rates, cancer care waiting lists and queues in the casualty ward.

The Dr Foster research showed 82 cases in which doctors operated on the wrong part of a patient's body and more than 200 incidents in which foreign objects such as swabs and drill bits were left in patients' bodies after surgery.

"Inside the health system it is well known that these problems exist and to be fair it is true of every health system in the world," Roger Taylor, director of Dr Foster, told Sky News.

"Everybody is wrestling with 'how do you stop this ... how do you make healthcare safe?' and the reason for our report is that one thing that has come through very clearly around the world is that part of the answer is being very open and honest and transparent about where there are problems."

The Dr Foster Hospital Guide 2009 rates the performance of NHS trusts throughout England on patient safety. Twelve were given the lowest rating, deemed to be "significantly underperforming on basic safety measures."

Of those 12 trusts, the Care Quality Commission (CQC), a public body set up earlier this year to regulate healthcare, had rated eight as "good" or "excellent."

Basildon and Thurrock NHS trust, where it was revealed earlier this week inspectors had found dirty equipment and low standards of care during unannounced checks, was rated worst -- with a mortality ratio 31 percent above the national average.