Bosses defend Royal London's ""underperforming"" rating

by Gemma Collins BOSSES at the Royal London say the hospital is seeing significant improvements after a recent report slammed it for underperforming . Barts and the Londo

by Gemma Collins

BOSSES at the Royal London say the hospital is seeing "significant improvements" after a recent report slammed it for "underperforming".

Barts and the London Trust which runs the hospital in Whitechapel was found to be failing to meet NHS minimum standards in a report released by the Department of Health last week.

The trust which also runs Bart's Hospital in Smithfield and the London Chest Hospital in Bethnal Green now faces being managed by NHS London until it improves.

Hospitals across the country were measured on their general standards, patients' experiences, quality, safety and government targets and the results were published in the DOH's first Quarter Publication for 2009-10.

A spokesman insists that the ratings given to the trust for `user experience' and `quality and safety' proved it has "some of the best quality clinical care in the country".

He added: "We have previously acknowledged that we had some weaknesses in our administrative systems, which adversely affected our performance on a number of national access standards.

"But a comprehensive improvement programme has been in place for some time and we are encouraged by the significant improvements this is delivering.