BBC Launches NHS Tracker Project

The three key targets cover:

• Accident and emergency departments
• Cancer care and planned operations and
• Treatment. 

The project will run for a year and has already highlighted some interesting issues.

Only one local hospital service in the whole of the UK has achieved all three key targets throughout the year and that's Luton and Dunstable NHS Trust. This particular trust has demonstrated innovation and good forward planning in a number of different areas that appear to have contributed to it's efficiency and good reputation.

Regionally however, the North East out-performs other areas of the UK, with six of the top 12 hospital services in England clustered around the North East, including South Tyneside, Gateshead and North Tees/Hartlepool.

Despite some isolated areas of good performance, some fear that NHS Trusts' overall performance has dropped so far from the key targets, that it is uncertain whether they will ever be able to meet them consistently going forward.

Maybe this says a lot about the pressures on the NHS and whether allocated targets are reasonable and achievable?