MENTAL health chiefs say patient care has improved since an NHS trust was rated ‘weak’ by a national health watchdog and have vowed the same problems will not happen again.

Worcestershire Mental Health Partnership Trust was rated ‘weak’ for the quality of performance for 2008/09 by the Care Quality Commission (CQC), which oversees the work of NHS trusts across the country.

Quality and financial performance were both assessed by the CQC as part of a wide-ranging review of all 392 NHS trusts, with results published in the middle of last month.

The ‘weak’ rating represented a significant dip in performance for the trust, which was rated ‘excellent’ during the same review last year (trusts can be rated excellent, good, fair or weak).

The poor performance of the trust, which runs Newtown Hospital and the psychiatric intensive care unit in Worcester was caused by the failure to hit two national targets – access to crisis resolution and home treatment and seven day follow-ups for patients.

The issue was discussed at a meeting of the trust when trust chairman Neil Lockwood said: “The two indicators that dragged down performance last year are now producing significantly better outcomes. It shouldn’t have happened and it won’t happen again. We are sorry we missed these targets.”

The seven day follow-up target stipulates that patients should have a follow-up appointment seven days after they are admitted as an inpatient.

The trust achieved an 87 per cent follow-up rate in 2008/09, the time period of the review, but this is projected to hit 98 per cent by the end of 2009/10.

Access to crisis resolution and home treatment, which fell to 69 per cent, has risen to between 96 per cent and 100 per cent of patients since April, above the national average of 94 per cent.

Based on these figures and their current performance, trust bosses say that they will be rated ‘good’ for 2009/10.

Jan Ditheridge, the trust’s chief operating officer, said the report did not reflect the quality of service it was providing.

She said it was important that patients were seen again within seven days of being discharged because of evidence that such an appointment “aids recovery and reduces risk”.