Poole’s Conservative MP and Shadow Local Government Minister Robert Syms has congratulated Poole Hospitals NHS Trust on its ‘Good’ rating for ‘Quality of Care’ set by the Healthcare Commission in its recent "health check" .

The Healthcare Commission’s new system which is reported as ‘more wide-ranging and tougher than the old system’ has published its most comprehensive assessment yet of how the NHS in England is doing.

The ‘health check’, which uses a range of reports, hospital and financial data to compile its rankings of  Weak, Fair, Good and Excellent on both ‘Quality of care’ and ‘Use of resources’, has replaced the old hotel-style "star ratings".

Robert Syms MP, paid tribute to Poole Hospital NHS Trust and said “Considering Labour’s financial mismanagement of the NHS, 18,000 job losses, re-organisation after re-organisation and a deficit at the end of last year of nearly £1.3 billion.  I’d like to congratulate and thank our local health care professionals who dedicate themselves to the care of their patients, often in difficult circumstances.”

570 NHS health providers have been assessed by the report with more than half needing to improve the quality of their services or their financial management.