The Southern Trust’s acute hospital network – Craigavon Area and Daisy Hill – has been officially named as one of the Top 40 performing hospitals in the UK for the fifth year running.
The CHKS Top Hospitals award is based on the evaluation of over 20 key performance indicators covering safety, clinical effectiveness, health outcomes, efficiency, patient experience and quality of care.
The Southern Trust was also one of the top five in the UK for Patient Safety at the CHKS Awards as well as being the first in Northern Ireland to receive the National Data Quality Award (for Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales).
The Data Quality Award recognises a commitment to driving improvement in clinical coding and data quality to the highest standard.
Francis Rice, Southern Health and Social Care Trust Interim Chief Executive said: “Good data quality is crucial in ensuring that front line staff have the right information to effectively treat patients and provide the best possible care.
“The data quality award recognises the importance of timely and accurate clinical coding and the essential roles this plays in ensuring that we have information available for analysis on patient outcomes, diagnosis and treatment, which in turn helps us learn and improve provision of care.
“A lot of rigorous work goes on behind the scenes by our staff to ensure we have the highest standards in clinical coding and we are delighted that they have been given this recognition for demonstrating such outstanding achievements in quality improvement.” 
Congratulating staff on this year’s awards, Southern Health and Social Care Trust Chair, Roberta Brownlee said: “Last year in our very busy hospitals, there were 392,790 outpatient appointments, 135,392 Emergency Department attendances, 57,883inpatient admissions and 5,976 births.
“While managing over half a million patient contacts each year, our staff are committed to delivering a very high standard of care every day, for every patient.
“We are committed to promoting a culture of excellence within the Southern Trust and this recognition once again reassures all of our patients, carers and staff that their hospitals are amongst the best in the UK.
“I would like to pay tribute to every member of staff working in our hospitals who has played an important role in achieving these awards and am delighted that their commitment and dedication has been rewarded in this way.”
Picture, second: Sarah Atkinson, Managing Director, CHKS presents the Top Hospitals presents a Top Hospital Award to Dr Richard Wright, Medical Director, Aldrina Magwood, Acting Director of Performance and Reform, Dawn Gibson and Judith Paulin, both Clinical Coding Supervisors, Southern Health and Social Care Trust.
Picture, second: Sarah Atkinson, Managing Director, CHKS presents the National Data Quality Award to Aldrina Magwood, Acting Director of Performance and Reform, Dawn Gibson and Judith Paulin, both Clinical Coding Supervisors, Southern Health and Social Care Trust.
Picture, main: The Southern Health and Social Care Trust’s Clinical Coding Team – which is the first in Northern Ireland to receive the CHKS National Data Quality Award.
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