HEALTH chiefs in the Suffolk Coastal area today hailed the two-star award given to their services as a "benchmark on which to build" for the future.The year-old Suffolk Coastal Primary Care Trust (PCT) is delighted with the rating which saw it meet eight out of nine key targets.

HEALTH chiefs in the Suffolk Coastal area today hailed the two-star award given to their services as a "benchmark on which to build" for the future.

The year-old Suffolk Coastal Primary Care Trust (PCT) is delighted with the rating which saw it meet eight out of nine key targets.

Suffolk Coastal's achievement was trumpeted alongside other success stories throughout the region.

West Suffolk Hospital moved up to join Gorleston's James Paget Hospital in the top-marked three-star category.

And yesterday the Evening Star exclusively revealed Ipswich Hospital had moved up another notch from last year's lowly one-star rating.

Suffolk Coastal was marked down in the Commission for Health Improvement's assessment for a slight budget overspend.

The PCT is responsible for providing health care through GPs and other practitioners and community services from Felixstowe to Westleton, and runs Felixstowe's General and Bartlet Hospitals, and Aldeburgh Hospital.

Ana Selby, PCT chief executive, said staff should be extremely proud of the rating.

"It is through their hard work and the work with our partners that we achieved this result," she said.

"It is important for any organisation to have a benchmark on which to build and these figures are just that.

"No organisation can grow and succeed without a regular and comprehensive review of their work and the star ratings have provided us with an opportunity to review how successful we have been in our first year, whilst we were facing the challenges of building a new organisation."

She believed the organisation had made significant advances since the assessment and was confident of achieving three stars in the future.

"Although the Trust attained a two-star rating, as with any organisation in their first year, there are still areas requiring improvement," said Mrs Selby.

"We didn't achieve the financial management key indicator because of an overspend of less than half a per cent.

"This relates to an inherited deficit when the PCT was established last year. But we are confident that within a year, we will be able to show greater improvement in this and many other areas."

The eight key targets met were: access to a GP; access to a primary care professional; number of inpatients waiting longer than the standard; number of outpatients waiting longer than the standard; total time in accident and emergency; single telephone access; four-week smoking quitters; and improving working lives.

WEBLINK: www.suffolkcoastal-pct.nhs.uk