Airedale NHS Trust has been applauded by an independent health watchdog for the way it manages patient admissions into hospital.

The Trust, which manages Airedale General Hospital, has been given a rating of excellent' in a national report published today by the Healthcare Commission.

The Commission looked at how 154 trusts manage admissions for emergency care and patients on a waiting list. It explored waiting times, waiting list management, admission to the right bed and lengths of stay.

Airedale's rating puts it in the top ten per cent of Trusts in the country.

Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, which manages Bradford Royal Infirmary and St Luke's Hospital, has been rated good', along with 40 per cent of trusts in the country.

Airedale NHS Trust scored top marks for all aspects of emergency admissions, which looked at the average time spent in A&E by patients who were admitted to hospital, the percentage of patients admitted from A&E spending more than four hours in A&E and patients' perception of their wait for a bed.

Bradford Teaching Hospitals also scored slightly above average in this area.

Gavin Anderson, accident and emergency unit manager for Airedale NHS Trust said: "We closely monitor the patient's waiting times and we also have 16 of our nursing staff who are qualified emergency nurse practitioners, who have had specialist training and are therefore able to deliver some of the care previously given by doctors.

"We also work closely with our primary care partners in the out of hours emergency care centre so they can treat patients if their needs are appropriate.

"We are pleased this report shows our patients feel positively about their waits as our nurses and reception staff also try hard to keep our patients informed about their wait for treatment, especially at peak times in the department."

The report also suggested trusts could improve more by tackling delays further into patients' hospital stays and giving patients on waiting lists more choice over admission dates.

Both Airedale and Bradford scored below the national average in this area.

Dean Johnson, director of planning and performance at Bradford Teaching Hospitals commended staff for their hard work. He added that overall there was much to be proud of and progress was being made in areas in which the Trust had not scored highly.

"The Trust is working hard to make improvements in relation to patients being able to choose their admission dates and reduce the length of stay," he said.

The full results can be viewed at www.healthcarecommission.org.uk e-mail: claire.lomax@bradford.newsquest.co.uk