I NOTE that our excellent hospital has been rated in its latest Care Quality Commission report as requiring improvement.

It is important to remember that the CQC inspects 39 separate elements and in all of those relating to quality of care and clinical effectiveness, the hospital performed extremely well – surely the most pressing concerns for patients and their families.

However, the complexity of the NHS gives rise to conflicting objectives amongst the various evaluating agencies. For example, while one is looking at the quality of service, another is scrutinising productivity rates and yet another is reviewing financial efficiency.

In this scenario, a ward could be offering excellent care and good patient outcomes but still fall down because it does not have the correct – entirely arbitrary – ratio of nurses.

Of course, all our hospitals must all continue to strive to do better and better and I know that the leadership of SDH will be acting to address the points on which the CQC marked them down.

As a user of its services, I continue to have full confidence in our superb hospital and its dedicated staff, who fully deserve the good rating they achieved on the vast majority of the inspection criteria.

Also in the last week, many low paid workers in Salisbury will have received a pay rise, with the advent of the National Living Wage, one of the fundamental elements of the government’s promise to ensure that work always pays.

I am delighted the Chancellor has been able to commit to providing such significant support for those on low incomes.

The Low Pay Commission is further setting out how it will lift the minimum wage to 60 per cent of median earnings by 2020.