Transformed: The failing NHS trust taken over by private firm has one of the highest levels of patient satisfaction

Hinchingbrooke Hospital is ranked one of the highest for patient happiness and waiting times

It was on the verge of going bust when it was taken over by Circle last year

It is the first NHS trust to be run entirely by a private firm



The first NHS trust to be run entirely by a private firm has one of the highest levels of patient satisfaction in the country.

Hinchingbrooke, a hospital in Cambridgeshire with 160,000 patients, was on the verge of going bust when it was taken over by Circle last year.

But NHS figures show it is now ranked as one of the highest for patient happiness and waiting times.

A private company who turned failing Hinchingbrooke hospital (pictured) into an award-winner is set to pull out of running services. It says soaring costs, pressure on A&E and funding cuts are to blame

The company running the trust has slashed losses at the hospital by 60 per cent and will soon begin to pay off burgeoning debts built up over years of mismanagement. The takeover deal, which saved the hospital from closing down, is seen as a blueprint for the future of many NHS trusts.

The George Eliot Hospital in Warwickshire is already considering adopting the model.

The NHS is attempting to improve patient care drastically in the wake of a damning report into the scandal at Mid Staffordshire, where up to 1,200 died needlessly.

It blamed the horrific care on a culture of targets across the health service with managers inclined to ignore the concerns of frontline staff.

Damning report: The NHS is attempting to improve patient care drastically in the wake of the scandal at Mid Staffordshire, where up to 1,200 died needlessly

Experts say the system in place at Hinchingbrooke, which empowers doctors and nurses, could be used in dozens of other struggling NHS trusts.

Jim O’Connell, chief executive of the hospital, said: ‘We put more of the decision-making in the hands of the doctors and nurses.

He added: ‘There are still a lot of inefficiencies in the NHS because it is the bureaucracy that has built up over all these years, and we have to change that.

‘Any changes that we make have to be good for patients and good for efficiency as well.’



Patient satisfaction has risen to 85 per cent, placing Hinchingbrooke in the top six of the East of England’s 46 hospitals. The feedback is calculated by asking families and patients whether they would recommend the hospital, then weighting the answers compared to local peers.

Previously the trust was among the lowest ranking for satisfaction.

Figures also show that Hinchingbrooke has risen from being one of the worst performing trusts to one of the best under the private firm’s management.When Circle took over, the hospital was consistently near the bottom of the 46 trusts, with many patients waiting more than four hours in A&E.

It now tops the list for short waiting times, seeing 98.2 per cent of patients within the required window.

The hospital also ranks fifth for the proportion of patients with suspected cancer having tests within a fortnight.

Before the takeover it had missed targets every month since June 2010.

It now treats 89 per cent of cancer patients within 62 days, beating the 85 per cent target.

Circle saved millions of pounds a year by cutting out arduous paperwork and middle management.

Under the former ownership, a lengthy form had to be filled out every time a lightbulb needed changing, in a process that often took more than a week.

The group, which runs independent hospitals in Reading and Bath, inherited debts of £39million with the project.

The hospital had been expected to lose £10million last year, but this has been whittled down to £3.7million by the Circle group.

It made up the deficit from its own coffers, rather than taxpayer funds, and is expected to break even in the current year.