Johnson: Health check report shows “clear improvement”

Alan Johnson has responded to the Healthcare Commission’s latest annual health check report, insisting that the report shows “clear improvement”.

The health secretary acknowledged that the 2007 report was the toughest and most extensive assessment of the NHS but insisted that the commission was setup to ensure that high standards continued to be delivered.

He confirmed that more and more trusts were achieving better ratings and improving on last year’s performance.

Mr Johnson went on to comment on the issue of hospital infections, stressing that safety was the government’s top priority and called on the NHS to ensure that hygiene standards were met.

“We have, and will continue to improve the way the NHS works to make sure everyone is safe. We will deep clean every hospital, ward by ward. We have set new uniform rules so that all staff are ‘bare below the elbows’ to encourage better hand washing.”

He added that hospital inspectors would be given increased power to close wards if hygiene matters were not being tackled sufficiently.

The NHS recently saw the release of the interim report of the Darzi Review with the final report expected next year in time for the 60th anniversary of the NHS.