Hospital managers are confident that this year they will achieve top marks for the first time in the NHS ratings -- a remarkable turnaround as the Oxford trust was only one of two in the UK to fail to achieve any stars in 2001.

The trust, which oversees Oxford's John Radcliffe Hospital, Churchill Hospital and Radcliffe Infirmary, and the Horton, Banbury, achieved all nine key objectives set by ministers.

Staff are now waiting to find out if they have passed a series of supplementary targets -- known as the scorecard -- which evaluate clinical performance, patient care and overall capability.

The Healthcare Commission, the Government organisation responsible for NHS ratings, has yet to reveal the pass threshold for these 32 goals, which will be added to the final results before hospitals are graded in July.

The trust has introduced a range of measures to hit the nine key targets.

A computer system called Jonah has been installed in A&E to monitor patients and help prioritise cases, and extra outpatients clinics have been set up.

Work is being done with Oxfordshire Social Services to make sure inpatients are discharged as soon as possible, freeing up beds.

The trust also made significant savings to clear £41m debts, helping it break even at the end of the financial year.

Members of the watchdog body, the patient and public involvement forum, congratulated staff for their hard work.

In an ORH board report, trust director of planning and information Andrew Stevens said: "This is a significant achievement that is the result of considerable commitment and team work by all staff across the trust and, in particular, organisations within the health and social care system in Oxfordshire.

"This puts the trust in a strong position in terms of the next set of performance ratings. The trust's ultimate rating will depend on how well it performs on the balanced scorecard."

The rating system, introduced in 2001, uses a star system to grade hospital performance.

The top score is three stars and the lowest is zero. Last year the trust was awarded two stars.

Mr Stevens said: "Our performance has shown a year-on-year improvement. It's not been dramatic, it's been due to the very hard work by staff over a number of years."