Watchdog slams Brent health trust

12:10am Thursday 16th October 2008

Comments (0)   Have your say »

HOPES are high the main healthcare provider in Wembley will rapidly improvement despite a damning report by an independent watchdog.

Brent Teaching Primary Care Trust failed to meet core standards in eleven categories set by the Healthcare Commission, including safeguarding children, controlling infection, providing a safe and secure environment, and decontamination of their premises and equipment.

But Barry Gardiner, MP for Brent North, believes the trust, recently renamed as NHS Brent, will rapidly improve following a change of management.

He said: “I was fully excoriating in my criticism of the health trust, but I believe there is now a good team in place.

“In particular they have a firm grip of the finances, whereas before they were bleeding money on things they shouldn’t have been and not spending money in the right areas.

“I am confident the trust is addressing most of the problem areas, and see them becoming a leader in healthcare in the borough.”

The trust, which runs Wembley Centre for Health & Care, in Chaplin Road, had well documented financial difficulties which led to plummeting levels of services.

However, a radical change of management around a year ago led to an action plan to address the problems.

Mark Easton, chief executive of the trust, said he was disappointed with the report, but it was not unexpected.

He said: “It is for the period of April 2007 to April 2008, when we were going through a series of financial and organisational difficulties.

“These results no longer reflect our current position.

“We have made significant progress in addressing our financial problems and have agreed a strong action plan to help drive up standards.

“I am confident that the quality and standard of our services will continue improving and we shall get higher ratings next year.”

NHS Brent was giving a ‘weak’ rating in the report for both quality of service and use of resources, and was joined in that category by the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital NHS Trust, which runs a specialist hospital in Stanmore.

The two trusts were the only in London to be rated weak in the annual report, billed as the most comprehensive review of healthcare services across the country.

The report did not bring all bad news for health services in the borough, with a promising results for Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust.

The trust, which has a mental health centre at Northwick Park Hospital, was compliant with all but one core standards, earning it an ‘excellent’ rating this year.