The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) has issued league tables for NHS Trusts and Ambulance Service NHS Trusts and they make for difficult reading for those serving the South Hams.

For NHS Trusts there are four categories with one being the best and four the worst.

Plymouth University Hospitals NHS Trust which serves Kingsbridge, Salcombe, Modbury, Ivybridge, Woolwell and the surrounding area came in the bottom Category Four and was placed 109 out of 134 in England.

Torbay & South Devon NHS Foundation Trust serves Totnes, Dartmouth and the surrounding areas and was placed in Category Three coming in at 71.

Out of non-acute (non-emergency) services Devon Partnership NHS Trust, which provides Mental health and learning disability support, comes in at 60th place out of 61.

Meanwhile the South Western Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust was in 9th place out of 10.

Health Secretary Wes Streeting wants to end the “postcode lottery of patient care,”

The rankings will be issued quarterly from now on and the highest scoring trusts will be given more autonomy including being able to reinvest surplus budgets in new equipment and other improvements.

High performing leaders will be paid more with those consistently underperforming risking losing pay.

Top performers will also be sent to help turn around those performing poorly.

Nationwide the highest scoring hospital was Moorfields Eye Hospital NHSA Foundation Trust and the lowest was The Queen Elizabeth Hospital King’;s Lynn NHS Foundation Trust.

The best performing ambulance service was the North West Ambulance Service NHS Trust with the worst being the East of England Ambulance Service NHS Trust.

The rankings measure trusts on on measures which include reducing waiting times for operations and A & E, patient access to care, and finance.

The mid-table hospitals will be helped to learn from those at the top.