Somerset’s impressive performance in the newly released NHS league tables will not speed up hospital upgrades, the health minister has confirmed.
The Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC) introduced these league tables in early September to rank NHS trusts across various metrics and encourage higher service quality. The Somerset NHS Foundation Trust, which manages Musgrove Park Hospital in Taunton and Yeovil Hospital among others, ranked in the top 20 NHS trusts nationwide—one of four from the West Country to achieve this distinction.
However, health minister Karin Smyth MP has acknowledged that this achievement won’t fast-track improvements to Musgrove Park Hospital. Patients in the area will likely have to wait until at least 2033 for any additional facility upgrades.
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The league tables measure how well NHS trusts meet government priorities, including emergency waiting times, ambulance response performance, and elective procedure targets. Trusts with large financial deficits may be penalized, meaning some that scale back procedures to save money could rank higher than those increasing operations to reduce waiting times.
Speaking to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, Smyth, the Labour MP for Bristol South, expressed confidence that the league tables promote transparency positively, without adding pressure to NHS staff or negatively affecting patients. She said, “Staff and patients welcome the transparency. This isn’t about naming and blaming but about being open about challenges.”
She acknowledged ongoing successes nationwide, even in trusts with lower rankings, and stressed the importance of sharing best practices across the NHS. Smyth also highlighted concerns around maternity services at Musgrove Park, which remain under strain despite the trust’s top-20 status.
Musgrove Park was included in the ‘new hospitals programme’ announced by former Prime Minister Boris Johnson in 2020, intending to deliver 40 new hospitals within ten years. After Labour’s election victory in July 2024, the programme was reviewed and Musgrove’s planned upgrades were delayed until 2033.
Smyth emphasized the government’s efforts to stabilize funding for the hospital programme, saying, “We have put the new hospital programme on a financially stable footing and are working closely with the trust to maintain safe operations.”
While improvements won’t come sooner based on league table performance alone, the government will support the trust through capital bids to address urgent estate issues. Smyth reaffirmed the commitment to the long-term hospital programme and improving safety in the interim.
The NHS’s ten-year plan focuses on decentralizing healthcare decisions and shifting care closer to patients’ homes. Smyth underscored that local Integrated Care Boards (ICBs), such as NHS Somerset ICB, will guide priorities based on community needs rather than distant decision-makers in London.
She added, “We want to make better use of digital and remote technology to minimize unnecessary patient travel and redesign care services around patients’ convenience, not hospital locations.”
NHS Somerset ICB will meet in Yeovil on September 25 to discuss, among other topics, updates on Yeovil Hospital’s maternity services, as efforts continue to improve health services across the region.