HEALTHCARE ratings for local hospitals have improved since last year. The Annual Health Check, which is published by the Healthcare Commission today (Thursday), assesses NHS organisations for their quality of services and use of resources and gives them r

HEALTHCARE ratings for local hospitals have improved since last year.

The Annual Health Check, which is published by the Healthcare Commission today (Thursday), assesses NHS organisations for their quality of services and use of resources and gives them ratings of either excellent, good, fair or weak.

West Herts Hospitals NHS Trust (WHHT), which controls St Albans City, Hemel and Watford Hospitals, received a double 'fair' rating for the year 2007/08 - a big improvement on the double 'weak' rating of the two previous years.

Meanwhile, the West Herts Primary Care Trust (PCT), which also received two 'weak' ratings last year, was given a 'fair' rating in both of the areas under assessment.

Jan Filochowski, chief executive of the WHHT said: "I am very pleased the Healthcare Commission has recognised the enormous improvements we have now achieved. This is excellent news for our patients and for us. This time last year it seemed we were destined for another double 'weak' rating. It is through the immense hard work of all our staff that we have improved so significantly since then. There is more to come."

Chief executive of the West Herts PCT Anne Walker said: "These ratings reflect just how much we have achieved since we were established two years ago. This time last year we had already started to make improvements to our services and systems but we were rated as weak in both areas. Now thanks to the hard work of staff, I am delighted that our achievements have been recognised.