Norfolk hospital meeting MRSA target

Link: Norfolk news

   The JPH became a maximum three-star hospital last July - so if foundation status is granted, on either April 1 or July 1, it will become the region's best hospital.

Foundation status allows hospitals to set up a board of governors, which then decides the hospital's own budget and areas of speciality.

This part-autonomy from strategic health authorities and central government is granted only to the country's best performing hospitals and is designed to give staff more freedom to develop better ways of working.

A year ago things were so different. The JPH had lost its third star in the 2004 league tables and its rates of the MRSA virus were among the worst in Britain.

Money was being poured into the new �229m, 989-bed Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital, seen as the county's flagship, while the JPH was considered by many a poor relation.

But medical staff in Gorleston, from surgeons to cleaners, have worked hard over the last year to reverse their position.

A major reorganisation of the site, with medical wards being moved to the north and surgical to the south, has cut down on patient transport and has stopped the spread of diseases - in December the JPH reported MRSA rates were now better than target levels.