Politically, the Hospital Guide focused attention on quality of care and safety within the NHS. Health Secretary, Andy Burnham held a session in the House of Commons where he announced a series of new policies benefiting patients, such as mandatory reporting to the National Patient Safety Agency, mandatory investigation of all serious incidents and unexpected deaths, and all trusts would be required to screen for MRSA when admitting patients through A&E.
Andrew Lansley, MP said: "The Dr foster data is important because it focuses on measures that I don’t think the CQC very often considers, measures which make a difference in clinical terms to patients." Coventry Telegraph, 4 December 2009
Kingston and Surbiton MP Edward Davey said: "The public are understandably cynical now about all of the tables and statistics they read about, after so many years of Government spin. But what marks these Dr Foster ratings out as something unique and significant is how genuinely independent and authoritative they are." Kingston Guardian, 10 December 2009
Dr Foster's Hospital Guide dominated the headlines across radio, TV and the press over the weekend of its launch on the 29-30 November. Buoyed by revelations at Basildon and Thurrock, the role of the Care Quality Commission and sackings at Colchester the Hospital Guide garnered more interest than ever before.
The Hospital Guide and Dr Foster received 139 mentions on national and regional radio and TV between 27 - 1 Dec (and again on the Today programme on 4 December). Roger Taylor, Director of Research and Co-Founder of Dr Foster appeared on 35 radio and TV programmes (19 of them regional and 16 national). Programmes included; C4 news, Sky News, BBC news, BBC Breakfast, GMTV, ITN News, BBC Radio 4’s Today programme and 5 Live Breakfast amongst others.
From the 27 Nov to the 13 Dec the Hospital Guide was featured in 68 articles in the national press, including all the major newspapers (with a full three page exclusive in the Observer along with additional comment and an editorial), the Economist and the Spectator. 260 regional newspapers picked up the story along with 23 trade press magazines including the Health Service Journal who carried an exclusive story from the Guide prior to launch.
The Hospital Guide featured strongly online, setting the blogosphere alight through commentators such as Ian Dale and Dizzy Thinks as well as inclusion on Mums.net. In all the Hospital Guide was mentioned in 1038 online articles. Between Sunday 29 and 03 December drfosterhealth.co.uk received over 45,000 visits and drfoster.co.uk over 16,800 unique visitors from Sunday 29 - 13 December.
The full Hospital Guide can be found at . The Dr Foster 'Trust of the year' for 2009 is University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.
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