THERE were mixed fortunes for the region's NHS trusts in today's latest star ratings league tables.

It is smiles all round at Alder Hey, the Royal Liverpool Children's Hospital, as well as Clatterbridge Centre for Oncology and Liverpool Women's Hospital, where the trusts jumped up from two to three stars.

But Aintree Hospitals Trust fell from three stars to two stars, halting its plans to become one of the first wave of foundation hospitals which are able to move away from Government control.

This is also the first time primary care trusts have been graded and two local organisations, Cheshire West and Ellesmere Port and Neston, have been awarded the top rating.

The Countess of Chester Hospital and Wirral Hospital maintained last year's rating of three stars, as did Lancashire Ambulance Service.

The only other change was for St Helens and Knowsley Hospitals Trust which stepped up from one star to two.

Clatterbridge Centre for Oncology is one of three centres of excellence in England specialising solely in cancer care.

Chief executive Geoff Greenwood said: "I am thrilled at this excellent news, which bears testimony to the hard work, dedication and total commitment of our staff to our patients.

"This is a massive vote of confidence for the trust, which last year achieved a two star rating.

"We said then that we recognised there were a small number of areas where improvements could be made and that we were working constructively with our staff to address them. The fact that we have done this successfully is borne out by this year's award of three stars."

Annette Quinlan, of Chester, has nothing but praise for the staff of Liverpool Women's Hospital.

The 42-year-old psychiatric nurse gave birth to daughter Niamh in January following 19 miscarriages and 14 years of heartache.

She said: "It really is a centre of excellence, not just because of the positive outcome I've had with Niamh but the treatment and the care I have received.

"All the staff have gone out of their way to help when I have visited both as an in-patient and an out-patient."

The trust, the largest single site hospital for women's services in the UK, is now considering applying to become a foundation hospital.

Rosie Cooper, chairman of the trust, said: "The award of three stars is an accurate reflection of the high standards provided by staff at our hospitals every day. We've always known we're the best - and now we can prove it."

The trust, which opened in January, 1995, is in the top band of performance in each of the focus areas and did particularly well in respect of patient satisfaction and waiting list management.

Aintree's drop from three to two stars means it can no longer apply to break free of Whitehall control as a foundation hospital.

A spokeswoman for the Department of Health said: "They can try again in the next wave if their star rating goes up again, but the fact is the list they were on was just an initial list. They still had to apply further and were not guaranteed the status even if they remained at three stars."

The trust fell in to the lower performance band for the amount of emergency readmissions to hospital following their discharge, the number of incidences of the bug MRSA which affects wounds, and its patient complaints procedure.

However, it performed highly on other key targets regarding waits in A&E, cleanliness, waiting lists and financial management.

The trust's chief executive, James Birrell, said: "Naturally the trust is very disappointed to have lost a star, especially when our performance has been very good in many areas and has improved significantly in some services.

"Achieving two stars still represents very satisfactory performance and I would wish to pay tribute to our staff for all their hard work and commitment.

"In relation to our application to become a foundation trust, we still hope to move forward as quickly as possible."