NHS trust performance has again raised concerns, after the health regulator highlighted almost half failed to meet the core care standards. Barely a month before new ratings for local public services, the Care Quality Commission's (CQC) annual report revealed the performance of trusts to fully meet all standards had declined from 69% in 2007/08 to 59% in 2008/09. Concern is mounting that councils could be caught in the public backlash after the CQC rated the quality of 20 trusts as ‘weak'. A further 27 have not received ratings higher than ‘fair' for quality and financial management in four years. Cynthia Bower, CQC chief executive, said some trusts were struggling and demanded improvements. ‘I want to ring the alarm bell in the board rooms of these organisations,' she said. Niall Dickson, chief executive of the King's Fund health think-tank, called for answers about the standards of 32 trusts. He said: ‘We must understand whether the problems are managerial or structural, and what is being done to help.'
