MENTAL HEALTH TRUST IS ACKNOWLEDGED FOR ITS EXCELLENT USE OF RESOURCES

The Norfolk and Waveney Mental Health Trust has received a rating of ‘excellent’ for ‘use of resources’ and ‘good’ for its ‘quality of services’ in the third Healthcare Commission annual health check.

The rating of excellent for use of resources is in recognition of the Trust’s strong performance. Only two other mental health trusts in the East of England were given an excellent for their use of resources.

The annual health check rating is in two parts, with each NHS trust assessed on a four-point scale from ‘excellent’ to ‘weak’, for both ‘quality of services’ and their ‘use of resources’ (financial management). The quality of service score is an assessment of how well the trust is performing against standards and targets. The use of resources score looks at financial management and value for money.

The Trust has shown consistent improvement in the use of resources. Two years ago the first annual health check gave a rating of fair and last year the rating increased to good. For quality of service the Trust has received good ratings for the past three years.

Chief Executive of the Norfolk and Waveney Mental Health Foundation Trust said: ‘We are delighted to have received excellent for the way we manage the organisation and good for the quality of our clinical services, it’s down to a lot of hard work from practitioners and managers working together and we are determined to make it a double excellent next year.’

The current ratings are based on the Trusts performance between 1 April 2007 and 31 March 2008.