THE NHS trust which runs the QE2 Hospital in WGC has recorded its best ever performance, according to its chief executive Nick Carver.

Mr Carver spoke to the Welwyn Hatfield Times after East and North Herts NHS Trust– which also runs the Lister in Stevenage – released details of its operational performance for the 2009/10 financial year.

According to the trust’s own figures, more than 98 per cent of patients who visited A&E between April 1, 2009 and March 31, 2010 were seen within the national standard of four hours.

Elsewhere, the trust reduced the level of operations cancelled on the day due to non-clinical reasons from 2.4 per cent in 2008/09 to 0.75 per cent in 2009/10.

The number of superbug infections also hit its lowest level – just 10 cases of MRSA (down 44.4 per cent from 2008/09) and 82 cases of Clostridium difficile (down 24.1 per cent) were recorded during last year.

Mr Carver said the trust had delivered a “really excellent” set of results.

“Whatever way you look at them, it has been our best ever performance – and is a credit to our hard working and highly dedicated staff,” he said.

“Today patients being treated in our hospitals are waiting far less time for their care to start, are highly unlikely to have their surgery cancelled at short notice and have a very low risk of getting an MRSA or Clostridium difficile infection while in our care.

“They are also telling us, in increasing numbers, that they rate our services highly and find our wards to be clean and the food to be good.”