WORCESTERSHIRE Acute Hospitals NHS Trust has been named among the top 40 out of half the trusts nationwide.

International company CHKS, which specialises in measuring healthcare performance, ranked the trust in the top 40 of the 115 hospital trusts which use its services.

Each was rated on 13 areas of performance using Govern-ment data for league tables and information gathered by the firm.

The indicators include mortality rates, length of hospital stay, waiting times and the number of operations resulting in complications.

CHKS chief executive Graham Harries said: "What all the top 40 hospitals have achieved is a high level of performance across all the indicators.

"This demonstrates to us and to their local residents that their hospitals are well managed and focussed on the needs of the patient."

The company claims this is the first time hospitals have put themselves up for rigorous scrutiny.