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St Mary's Hospital in Bristol, part of the Nuffield Hospitals group, was wrongly included in a list of hospitals to be “named and shamed” over food hygiene standards in a report issued by Liberal Democrat MP Norman Lamb. Further errors by the media have compounded an unfortunate misunderstanding.

The Nuffield Hospital Bristol at St Mary’s was inspected and given a “5 Star” rating (the best possible) for food hygiene standards by Bristol City Council’s Environmental Health Office as recently in March this year. This can be verified at website called Scores on the Doors which shows food hygiene reports for Councils across the country.

However, Mr Lamb’s report, issued on Sunday 12 August, mentioned St Mary’s Hospital as one of a number of hospitals “rated as top priority for inspection every six months”. In fact St Mary’s is on an 18-month inspection regimen, indicating the lowest risk status possible for a hospital preparing food on the premises.

Mr Lamb’s Parliamentary office today acknowledged that an out-of-date report had been used and withdrew any mention of St Mary’s.

Unfortunately, the Daily Mirror had already run an article, based on the original press release, in which they appear to have confused St Mary’s with a hospital in Cumbria accused of a number of serious breaches of food hygiene protocol. Some of these alleged breaches were attributed to both St Mary’s and the other hospital by the Daily Mirror, and BBC Radio Bristol subsequently levelled the same allegations at St Mary’s. We cannot comment on whether the allegations are valid in relation to the other hospital, but they are categorically not true in relation to St Mary’s Hospital in Bristol.

BBC Radio Bristol has now undertaken to make a statement correcting the position, and the Mirror will also print a retraction and remove mention of St Mary’s from its website.

Nuffield Hospitals is dismayed that a hospital with very high standards of hygiene in all respects, including the preparation of food, has been dragged erroneously into this debate, but we are gratified to see that the situation is gradually being resolved. We sincerely hope that patients, families and staff will not have experienced undue anxiety as a result of the mix-up.

Nuffield Hospitals has agreed to be the principle sponsor of the first annual Independent Healthcare Awards, which take place in London at a Gala Dinner event at the Marriot in Grosvenor Square on 21st September 2006. Organised by Laing & Buisson the awards will highlight achievements within the independent healthcare sector and pay tribute to individuals and teams who have demonstrated excellence and innovation.

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On 2nd December Ms Patricia Hewitt MP visited the Leicester Nuffield Hospital to meet with patients and staff. One of the highlights of the Secretary of States visit was the tour of the Vanguard mobile endoscopy unit. This mobile unit is the first of its type in the world and is a powerful and visually impressive icon of innovation and ‘new healthcare thinking’.

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On 29th November Nuffield hospitals invited leading thinkers in the healthcare sector to attend a roundtable event to explore the implications of Patient Choice to all parties, looking specifically at the impact it may have on the doctor / patient relationship.

On 15th October, Sona Healthcare re-launched under the new name of Nuffield Proactive Health. Nuffield’s new PR firm Citigate were in charge of the re-launch.