Improving clinical quality

Our long tradition of clinical excellence continues today with some of the best clinical results in the UK.

One of Britain's top teaching hospitals

Barts and The London once again achieved the highest possible rating for its quality of services in the Healthcare Commission ‘annual health check ratings’ published in October 2007.

The services at the Trust’s three hospitals – Barts in the City, The Royal London in Whitechapel and The London Chest in Bethnal Green – were rated as “excellent” for the second successive year. 

Barts and The London is the only major teaching hospital in the capital to achieve the “excellent” rating two years running and the only hospital trust in East London to be awarded the top rating. The Trust also maintained its ‘good’ rating for the efficiency with which it uses NHS resources. 

The Healthcare Commission examined every hospital in the country to see how they were performing against a range of measures, including how long patients wait for treatment, patient safety, cleanliness and how well the organisation is run.  Barts and The London scored highly overall.  The ratings build on an already strong track record, including one of Britain’s best survival rate records and seven unbroken years of achieving break even or better.

High quality clinical care

Barts and The London is committed to delivering high-quality clinical care using systems and procedures that are safe and effective, both for staff and patients. We achieve this through our integrated healthcare governance framework, which supports all clinical activity in our hospitals. In particular, our clinical governance committee reviews and monitors the quality and safety of the care offered in our hospitals and ensures compliance with national safety standards for the NHS.

Patient safety initiative targets - 15 per cent mortality rate reduction

Barts and The London is one of 10 partnerships chosen to take part in the Safer Patients initiative, an international programme run by The Health Foundation and the US-based Institute for Healthcare Improvements (IHI).

Working with the Royal Free Hampstead NHS Trust, we will focus on improving patient safety on the wards, before, during and after surgery, and in critical care. In each setting, clinicians will work on improving infection control, management of drugs, and communication between staff and patients. Improvements will be measured through the submission of monthly data, such as mortality and MRSA rates, to the IHI.

The two-year programme aims to achieve improvements in patient safety, including a 50 per cent reduction in the number of adverse events by improving clinical outcomes such as a 15 per cent reduction in mortality and a 50 per cent reduction in MRSA bloodstream infection. Results will be published and shared with other NHS hospitals to ensure good practice across the UK.

Attracting leading specialists

Over the course of a year Barts and The London clinicians see some of the most seriously ill patients in London. This high concentration of complex cases means that we attract some of Britain’s leading specialists – expertise that benefits all our patients, including those coming in for more routine issues.