The trust that runs Queen’s has demanded answers after a new official website ranked the hospital “among the worst” in England for infection control and cleanliness.
The tool launched this week to give members of the public opportunities to compare different hospitals shows the Rom Valley Way hospital is performing relatively badly on preventing infections and cleaning.
But Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals Trust (BHRUT) has called into question the figures, which appear on the NHS Choices website.
A spokesman said it had been 192 days since its last recorded case of MRSA and there had been only four instances of C. difficile in the last year.
“The Trust has an excellent record for infection control and cleanliness, so we have urgently asked NHS Choices to explain what data they have used,” he added.
The website’s indicator is made up of existing data regarding the number of C. difficile and MRSA infections, and patients’ views on the cleanliness of wards.
Queen’s rating does not describe how safe the hospital is, health officials stressed, but compares it with the performance of other hospitals across the country.
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