It was announced in November 2024 by the secretary of state for health that NHS England would assess NHS trusts against a range of performance criteria and publish the results in 2025.

The government have now “named and shamed” the NHS Trusts (including specialist, non-specialist and community hospitals, ambulance services and mental health providers), ranking them from best to worst based upon performance levels. They are ranked on 7 different areas, including waiting times for operations, cancer treatment, time spent in A&E and ambulance response times. The finances of the Trusts are also assessed.

After this the government places them into four segments, the first of which reflect the best overall performers and the fourth listing the worst. The results are broken down into league tables for Acute Trusts (including small, medium and large hospitals, teaching hospitals, specialist hospitals and multi service hospitals), Non-Acute Trusts (including community hospitals, care, mental health and learning disability) and Ambulance Trusts.

This is momentous as it is the first time in history that the government have ranked the hospitals publicly, allowing patients to check the performance of their local NHS provider and see which are giving substandard care.

The results indicated that the best performing in the Acute Trusts were the specialist hospitals, with the top 5 being Moorfields Eye Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital NHS Trust, The Christie NHS Foundation Trust, Liverpool Heart and Chest Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and Royal Papworth Hospital NHS Foundation Trust.

However, focus is inevitably going to be upon the worst performing Trusts, with Wes Streeting stating that the league tables would help him to hold NHS leaders across the country accountable, as well as holding him personally to account. The rankings will allow for it to be identified when urgent support is required and allow high-performing areas to share best practices with others, taking the best of the NHS to the rest of the NHS. It is noted that this ranking system will be routinely looked at every 3 months, allowing hospitals to make improvements.

The worst largest performing hospital was Mid and South Essex Foundation Trust followed by Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust.

In terms of smaller performance hospitals, the worst was Queen Elizabeth Hospital, King’s Lynn NHS Foundation Trust followed by Countess of Chester Hospital NHS Foundation Trust.

The official Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) ranking can be found on this link: NHS England Data Dashboard, however, within the table below we have provided the lowest ranking hospitals as per the table together with their rating:

• 121 George Eliot Hospital NHS Trust Small 4 2.86
• 122 United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust Large 4 2.88
• 123 Hull University Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust Teaching 4 2.91
• 123 Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation Trust Large 4 2.91
• 125 Blackpool Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust Teaching 4 2.93
• 125 Northern Lincolnshire And Goole NHS Foundation Trust Medium 4 2.93
• 127 Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust Teaching 4 2.97
• 127 University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust Teaching 4 2.97
• 129 James Paget University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust Teaching 4 2.98
• 130 Medway NHS Foundation Trust Medium 4 2.99
• 130 North Cumbria Integrated Care NHS Foundation Trust Medium 4 2.99
• 132 University Hospitals Coventry And Warwickshire NHS Trust Teaching 4 3.01
• 133 Countess Of Chester Hospital NHS Foundation Trust Small 4 3.04
• 134 The Queen Elizabeth Hospital, King’s Lynn, NHS Foundation Trust Small 4 3.35

Senior management at the poorly ranked hospitals could see their pay being deducted if improvements do not occur. They trust that this will help with encouraging the hospitals to improve their ranking and care provided to the patients.

An NHS spokesperson said: ‘The new tables published today aim to boost transparency and arm organisations and patients with information by showing performance for each trust on seven key measures.

‘We recognise trusts face different challenges, and giving leaders and clinical teams accurate, up-to-date information means they can have the latest view of what they are delivering, where performance needs to improve and help identify where problems may lie.’