Patient Environment and Assessment Team

HC Deb 07 September 2004 vol 424 cc1094-5W

Mr. Norman

To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many hospitals were(a) put on special measures and (b) offered additional support following inspection by a Patient Environment and Assessment Team (PEAT) in each year since inspections began; and what the overall (i) PEAT score and (ii) star rating were in each case. [185333]

Mr. Hutton

Since 2000, assessments of hospital cleanliness have been undertaken by patient environment action teams (PEATs). Following these assessments hospitals are allocated a rating on a 'traffic-light' scale—Red equals poor, Amber equals acceptable and Green equals good. Since August 2001, PEATs have confirmed that there are no hospitals where overall standards are less than acceptable.

However, following the PEAT assessments in 2002, some hospitals were identified where, although overall acceptable levels had been achieved, it was felt that there were grounds for additional support to be provided to ensure that standards were maintained and any shortfalls identified remedied. This was also the case in 2003.

In 2002, 51 hospitals were identified where such support was been deemed appropriate and in 2003 this number was 111. The PEAT rating for all of these hospitals was 'Amber'.

The star rating process is applied to the aggregate performance of a trust, whereas the PEAT rating is applied to each hospital within a trust and it is therefore possible that a trust with an overall good star rating may have an individual site where cleanliness standards are a cause for concern.