New NHS league tables make grim reading for Shropshire's emergency hospitals
New Department of Health league tables have ranked the performance of the county's emergency hospitals as amongst the worst in the country.
The data ranks NHS trusts across England - including acute trusts, non-acute trusts and ambulance trusts.
There are mixed results where Shropshire's hospitals are concerned.
Each section of the list is subdivided into four performance categories, with category one containing the best performing trusts and category four containing those with the poorest performance.
Trusts are ranked within their category based on a “score” that has been determined by averaging their performance against a range of targets, such as reducing waiting times for treatment and for being seen in A&E departments, or improving ambulance response times.
The lower the score, the better the performance.
Unsurprisingly Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust (SaTH), which manages Royal Shrewsbury Hospital and Princess Royal Hospital in Telford, has fared badly.
SaTH is in the worst section, category four, and comes 113th overall for acute trusts - out of 134.
The Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hospital (RJAH) at Gobowen received a considerably better score, listed in category two, at 27 overall.
Shropshire Community Health Trust was listed in category two of the non-acute trusts, at joint 17th.
The Midlands Partnership NHS Foundation Trust is listed at number two in category one.
The ambulance service which serves Shropshire, West Midlands Ambulance Service (WMAS), was also ranked and is listed in category three, at sixth place overall.
The SaTH score comes amid ongoing difficulties for the trust, particularly in its A&E departments.
Figures last week showed that it was one of the worst in the country for people waiting more than 12 hours in A&E after doctors had taken a decision to admit them.
SaTH is in the midst of a major £312m overhaul of its services, intended to provide significant improvements.
The trust is making Shrewsbury the site of its only A&E, while women and children's services will also move to the hospital from Telford.
Princess Royal Hospital is becoming the trust's centre of planned care.
