Understanding the NHS England League Tables: Best & Worst-Performing NHS Trusts

NHS England has released their performance league tables for 2025. The purpose of which is to be transparent with the public about NHS performance for their acute and non-acute hospital trusts, as well as their ambulance trusts. These league tables are also put in place to create working targets for the individual trusts and to hold them accountable for their improvement.

Among the acute hospital trusts, Moorfields Eye Hospital NHS Foundation Trust in London is ranked number 1 with a score 1.39. At the lowest end of the scale, The Queen Elizabeth Hospital NHS Foundation Trust in King’s Lynn is ranked 134 with a score of 3.35.

For full information on the rankings for the acute, non-acute and ambulance trusts, please see the link below:

NHS trust performance league tables process and results

Snapshot of Acute Trust League Table below:

How are the trusts ranked?

As this league table system is new for the NHS, brought in by the Secretary of State in November 2024, it may be confusing to figure out how the trusts are assessed and graded.

The trusts are graded in segments of 1-4, 1 being the highest and 4 the lowest. As part of the process, each trust is required to submit a self-assessment, with evidence, to its region. As the process continues and the year progresses, oversight teams monitor the trust’s track record against their self-assessments.

The leagues are not just based on clinical aspects but also take into consideration things like operation waiting lists, cancer treatment, and A&E wait times. The financial handlings of the trusts are also included in their rankings; trusts that are in financial difficulties cannot be ranked any higher than segment 3.

University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust ranked 117

University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust (‘UHS’), which is based in Worthing but covers areas such as Brighton and Chichester, scored concerningly low at number 117 with a score of 2.82.

As previously said, these rankings are not all clinician-based, but they do give a good overall view of how the Trust is performing.

Worthing MP, Dr Beccy Cooper, responded to this disappointing ranking, as well as the ranking of Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust in the non-acute sector, in a public post.

Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, who provide mental health and learning disabilities services, ranked 59 out of 61, scoring a total of 3.07.

Dr Beccy Cooper, MP, stated that

“I will be contacting both trusts urgently to discuss this, and their plans for improving performance going forward.”

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Here at GoodLaw Solicitors, we specialise in medical negligence claims in England and Wales. We specialise in a variety of claims, including (but not limited to) birth injury, brain injury, cancer misdiagnosis, and mental health claims.

If you have experienced poor treatment by one of the poorly rated Hospital Trusts and any other type of medical malpractice, and would like to explore a potential medical negligence claim, then please get in touch with our medical negligence team.

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