Annual health check

How we measure up

Like our patients, we also receive a regular check-up. Ours is from the Healthcare Commission, (now the Care Quality Commission), the health watchdog in England. It carries out an annual health check rating of all NHS organisations, which measures them against national targets and standards, such as patient safety, cleanliness and waiting times (quality of services). It also looks at how well the organisation manages its finances (use of resources).

In 2007/08 NHS Wakefield District's assessment against the core standards put us in the top third of NHS trusts across the country. We were rated as 'good' for quality of services and 'fair' for use of resources. The rating system uses a scale of poor, fair, good and excellent.

As part of the annual health check, NHS Wakefield District makes a declaration of intent called a 'Standards for Better Health declaration'.

Standards for Better Health - Our declaration for 2008/09

For 2008/09, NHS Wakefield District will be assessed on the performance of services that we provide (eg community nursing and podiatry), and as our role as a commissioner of healthcare services. NHS Wakefield District has declared its compliance against the core standards in the form of two separate declarations.

The Standards for Better Health declarations contain details of the standards, and also includes comments from the Local Involvement Network, Wakefield District Council's Overview and Scrutiny Committee, Wakefield and District Safeguarding Children Board, the Learning Disabilities Partnership Board and the Strategic Health Authority.

For 2008/09 NHS Wakefield District has declared fully met with the Core Standards, for both the services we provide and as our role as a commissioner of healthcare services.

More information on the standards in general and our annual health check is available on the Care Quality Commission's website (see below for a link to their website).