THE end-of-year report for the East and North Hertfordshire NHS Trust - which runs Lister Hospital in Stevenage - reveals a record performance.

THE NHS Trust which runs Lister Hospital in Stevenage has recorded its best ever performance in terms of clinical, operational and financial standards over the past year.

Between April 1, 2009 and March 31, 2010, the East and North Hertfordshire NHS Trust recorded 10 cases of MRSA - down 44.4 per cent on the previous year - and 82 cases of clostridium difficile - down 24.1 per cent.

The Trust’s A&E service is now ranked in the top 20 per cent of best performing in the country, with 98 per cent of patients seen within four hours.

The number of operations cancelled on the day due to non-clinical reasons has reduced from 2.4 per cent to 0.75 per cent.

With the exception of orthopaedics and oral maxillofacial surgery, the Trust delivered its 18-week referral to treatment target, and all cancer waiting standards were met.

The Trust also achieved its target of a �2.5 million surplus - representing 0.75 per cent of its total budget.

Chief executive of the Trust, Nick Carver, said: “It’s clear the Trust and its staff have delivered a really excellent set of results. It has been our best ever performance, and is a credit to our hard-working and highly dedicated staff.

“Today patients being treated in our hospitals are waiting far less time for their care to start, are highly unlikely to have their surgery cancelled at short notice, and have a very low risk of getting MRSA or clostridium difficile while in our care.

“They are also telling us, in increasing numbers, that they rate our services highly and find our wards to be clean and the food to be good.

“Our mortality rates are falling at the same time that the number of patients being treated has risen significantly. In part that success is down to our staff improving the standards of their care, but it is also because of new medical technologies such as robotic urological surgery and an emergency angioplasty service for treating those suffering from a heart attack.”