The best (and worst) hospitals in London right now revealed

For the first time since 2010, the government has released a league table comparing NHS trusts across England. 

The football-style table has been brought back after they were scrapped by the government 15 years ago, with the purpose of beginning a ‘new era of transparency and accountability in the NHS’ and to ‘drive up standards’. Each trust has been assessed on 30 different metrics, including ambulance wait times, finances, A&E wait times, cancer treatment and waits for diagnostic tests – the lower their score, the better their performance.

Once those factors were assessed, the hospitals were organised into four ‘segments’. The top performers were put into segment one and the worst into segment four. Any trusts facing financial issues couldn’t rank any higher than segment three. 

So, now that we’ve established how the ranking works, let’s take a look at how London’s NHS trusts fared. With a score of 1.39, Moorfields Eye Hospital was ranked the best hospital in London and the best in the whole of England. 

In July, Moorfields (which is considered one of the best eye hospitals in the world) was the 10th best performer in England for patients waiting less than 18 weeks for elective care, third for providing diagnostic tests within six weeks and second for A&E patients seen to within four hours.

The Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital in the London Borough of Harrow followed closely behind on the ranking with a score of 1.48, while the Royal Marsden in Chelsea, a hospital specialising in cancer care, was London’s third best and the sixth best in England. 

At the other end of the spectrum, the Hillingdon Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust was the lowest ranking London hospital and 105th out of 135 in England. The Royal Free in Hampstead was the capital’s second-worst, ranking 95th. 

Heath secretary Wes Streeting said that the purpose of the table, which will be updated every three months, is to better inform the public about the service they’re using. But some argue that a single overall rating of a hospital does not truly represent how ‘good’ or ‘bad’ it is, and could push patients to completely avoid poorly rated health centres. 

Streeting 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.

‘These league tables 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.

‘Patients know when local services aren’t up to scratch and they want to see an end to the postcode lottery – that’s what this government is doing.’

London NHS trusts ranked best to worst

1. Moorfields Eye Hospital NHS Foundation Trust (Specialist)
2. Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital NHS Trust (Specialist)
3. The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust (Specialist)
4. University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (Teaching)
5. Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust (Teaching)
6. The Royal Orthopaedic Hospital NHS Foundation Trust (Specialist)
7. Guy’s & St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust (Teaching)
8. London North West University Healthcare NHS Trust (Teaching)
9. Chelsea & Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust (Teaching)
10. Homerton Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust (Teaching)
11. Kingston & Richmond NHS Foundation Trust (Medium)
12. St George’s University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (Teaching)
13. Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children NHS Foundation Trust (Specialist)
14. Whittington Health NHS Trust (Multi-service)
15. Barking, Havering & Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust (Teaching)
16. Epsom & St Helier University Hospitals NHS Trust (Teaching)
17. Croydon Health Services NHS Trust (Medium)
18. Barts Health NHS Trust (Teaching)
19. King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust (Teaching)
20. Lewisham & Greenwich NHS Trust (Large)
21. Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust (Teaching)
22. The Hillingdon Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (Small)

Get the latest and greatest from the Big Smoke – from news and reviews to events and trends. Just follow our Time Out London WhatsApp channel.

Stay in the loop: sign up for our free Time Out London newsletter for the best of the city, straight to your inbox.