A NATIONAL report has revealed the number of accidents in the NHS has risen by 24 per cent since last year.

But the Great Western Hospital is bucking the trend by actually improving its health and safety standards.

The Trust's head of health and safety, John O'Donnell, said: "Although I don't have exact figures to hand, I am pleased to say that in Swindon we have seen a reduction in the number of accidents.

"In recent years, we have introduced much more rigorous reporting of potential accidents which we can act on straight away. This figure has increased threefold, which shows there is greater awareness of the importance of reporting problems."

Last year, Swindon and Marlborough NHS Trust beat thousands of organisations to scoop an international health and safety award.

The Trust was one of four organisations to be awarded the British Safety Council's Sword of Honour. The success followed the trust's five star health and safety award earlier in the year.

Just four years ago, the Trust was the subject of a landmark prosecution after an inspector said health and safety did not come up to scratch.

Swindon and Marlborough NHS spokesman Chris Birdsall said: "Our record for risk assessment has got better over the years, culminating in last year's double award presentation with two of the countries top awards for health and safety.

"We take this issue extremely seriously and our good record and systems, which won us these awards at Princess Margaret Hospital, have been transferred to our new home at Great Western Hospital."

The latest National Audit Office report found that just over a fifth of the 297 trusts in England had met a target of reducing the number of accidents by a fifth by 2002.

It also revealed the gap between the best and worst performing trusts was growing larger.