Overview

• New DHSC rankings cover 205 trusts across acute, mental health/community and ambulance services, will be refreshed quarterly and are slated to extend to Integrated Care Boards by summer 2026.
• Moorfields Eye Hospital tops the acute list as specialist trusts dominate the upper ranks, with Northumbria Healthcare named the best-performing large general hospital.
• Lower-ranked examples include Queen Elizabeth Hospital, King’s Lynn and the Countess of Chester among acute providers, Birmingham Community Healthcare at the bottom of non-acute, and East of England as the lowest ambulance trust, while North West Ambulance leads its category.
• Composite scores draw on about 30 indicators such as A&E and elective waits, diagnostics, ambulance response times, patient experience and finances, with overspending able to push trusts into lower tiers.
• Government plans tie higher scores to greater autonomy and potential investment, promise targeted support for struggling providers, and threaten pay docking for persistently poor managers, as NHS Providers and leading think tanks warn the tables risk oversimplification and morale damage.