The chief executive of Airedale NHS Trust has identified the performance of staff as the major factor in the scooping of a national award.

Airedale Hospital was last month commended as small hospital of the year in a report by health information organisation Dr Foster.

Chief executive Adam Cairns said that the commitment of staff at the hospital was a major factor in its success.

The wide-ranging report looked at factors such as emergency care, patient satisfaction and how long patients waited for treatment.

Airedale also made the short-list for overall hospital of the year, alongside the Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Royal London Hospital and St Thomas's Hospital, London.

Speaking at last week's Airedale NHS Trust board meeting, Mr Cairns said: "The short-list was truly world class. The point Dr Foster makes is that care and the basic quality of service is very important.

"This hospital provides a very good quality service and produces very good results.

"What makes the difference is the commitment of the staff -- they're always looking to see what they can do to make it better."

One of the key indicators in the report was how many people survived treatment at each hospital and the mortality ratio of actual deaths against expected deaths.

Airedale was one of the top ten performing hospitals in that category and has produced a 9 per cent improvement over the past year.

However, Mr Cairns also spoke of difficulties the hospital faced as it attempted to reduce the trust's £6 million debt.

"It's an important year for the trust in 2006. There is a great deal to do and we have talked frequently about the many challenges ahead," he said.

A number of changes have already been made under the new "Way Ahead" reforms, with admissions streamlined and management reforms.

The accident and emergency department at Airedale Hospital is now within 1 per cent of meeting Government targets.

The department should treat or discharge all patients within four hours of arrival at the hospital, according to the Department of Health.

In December 2004 the hospital recorded an average performance of 97 per cent against the Government target, dealing with 3,915 cases.

Last month, that figure had risen to 98.7 per cent, although the actual number of cases treated was down to 3,754.

Mr Cairns said: "Twelve months ago, accident and emergency was effectively swamped and the four hour clearance time was not being met. We struggled to get that into the box.

"There are some very important national targets we need to be on top of, and we are now able to sustain 99 per cent clearance."

Mr Cairns added that attendance at the department was running below average.

However, part of that reason was largely due to the additional services offered by Airedale Primary Care Trust.

A spokesman for the hospital added that the department had remained busy due to the complexity and severity of the cases treated in December.

The annual number of patients treated in accident and emergency in 2005 increased by around 700.

Staff at Airedale Hospital who want a career break will now be able to do so under a new policy agreed by the trust board.

All employees with 12 months continuous service with the trust are now entitled to request a break from three months up to five years.

The scheme will cover requests for staff wanting to have children, care for dependants, study or take on voluntary or charity work.

Director of human resources Roger Pollard said: "We give career breaks to people for a number of reasons over a period of time.We've never had a formal policy, so we are putting it now on to a formal footing.

"It's about making sure we keep in touch with people and enable them to learn new skills."

Trust chairman Colin Millar said: "It seems a very enlightened thing to me."