Stockport NHS trust is among the best in the country for diagnosis and infection control, but among the worst for finance, emergency admissions, and referral times. 

That's according to new data from NHS England comparing different trusts and hospitals across the country. 

The data, released on 9 September, ranks NHS institutions in different categories and provides an overall score.

Health secretary Wes Streeting said it would let the public know 'what is actually going on' in their local trusts, and would also help to identify and support 'underperforming' trusts. 

Stockport NHS Trust - which manages Stepping Hill Hospital and other specialist centres across the borough - was given an overall ranking of 86 out of 134 different acute trusts. 

This ranking was decided based on a number of different categories, comprising access to services, financial performance, disease control, and more.

Stockport NHS Trust's performance was mixed across the different categories.

Stockport NHS Foundation Trust has a mixed performance when it comes to patients accessing care and emergency services

The trust performed particularly well in diagnosing cancer quickly, with almost 80 percent of urgent referrals receiving a diagnosis within four weeks (compared to the national average of 77 percent). 

On this metric, it was ranked 36th out of 118 other trusts providing the same service. 

Stockport also scored highly in patient safety, with below average rates for hospital-borne infections such as MRSA, C-Difficile, and E. Coli. 

However, in other areas, Stockport fell below the national average. 

Stockport NHS Trust performed well in controlling hospital-borne infections

It was among the worst in the country for its financial circumstances; a 9.38 percent deficit landed it at rank 129 out of 134. The national average is a 1.62 percent deficit. 

Treatment times also saw below average performance. Fewer patients (67.5 pc) were treated for cancer within 62 days of referral when compared with the national average (71.1 pc). 

Similarly, 42 percent of patients were waiting more than 18 weeks for elective treatment, compared with 39.3 on average. 

The trust also had a high rate of sickness absence, ranking at 102 out of 134 with 5.8 percent - above the national average of 5.2 percent.

Stockport, then, sits in the middle of the pack nationally, as it does in the North West region (rank 13 out of 23 overall). 

Stockport ranked among the worst trust in the country for its financial deficit, and also performed badly in its sickness absence rate

But how much of this data is a reflection of Stockport NHS Trust's performance in reality? 

NHS England itself maintains that just because one trust is higher than another doesn't necessarily mean it is better. 

After all, the top eight spots in the acute league table are all specialist hospitals such as cancer and eye centres, suggesting that the ranking is less favourable to more generalised trusts. 

Stockport was also hamstrung in the rankings due to its financial deficit - according to the league table criteria, any trust in deficit cannot be placed among the top tiers, even if it is providing exceptional care. 

Some medical experts have warned that this methodology is reductive and relies too much on financial performance. 

For example, some of Stockport NHS Trust's other highly-rated services such as urology and orthopaedics were not shown in the rankings. 

An operating team at Stepping Hill Hospital, managed by Stockport NHS Foundation Trust (Image - Stockport NHSFT)

Nonetheless, Daniel Elkeles, chief executive of NHS Providers, said that many trust leaders support the idea of league tables in principle. 

"If carefully designed and implemented, they could help drive healthy competition, strengthen local accountability and sharpen the focus of NHS leaders on national priorities", he said. 

Wes Streeting similarly said the league tables would help identify problematic areas and make the NHS more accountable to the public. 

"They will identify where urgent support is needed and allow high-performing areas to share best practices with others, taking the best of the NHS to the rest of the NHS", he said. 

"We must be honest about the state of the NHS to fix it. 

"Patients and taxpayers have to know how their local NHS services are doing compared to the rest of the country."

The government has also said that these league tables are a keystone of the 10 Year Plan for the NHS, which will shift focus away from hospitals onto prevention and community-based care. 

Health secretary Wes Streeting has said the new NHS League Tables will help make trusts more accountable (Image - UK Parliament)

Still, some NHS experts are concerned that this wider community-focused reform may be hard if large parts of the system are incentivised to protect their own position in the league table. 

Particularly since, as the Department of Health has said, there could be penalties for underperforming trusts including docked pay for managers, and fewer freedoms in decision-making. 

As Mr Elkeles added: "there is a risk of changed behaviours, closed cultures, and distorted reporting, to improve the appearance of performance without improving patient outcomes or experience". 

London-based doctor Michael Peel similarly said that league tables could 'exacerbate' regional differences. 

It remains to be seen in Stockport whether the new league table will boost performance and help address the local trust's financial difficulties - in particular its significant bill for repair work in its buildings. 

Stockport NHS Foundation Trust was approached for comment.

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