The hard work of hospital staff has been credited for helping Oxfordshire's largest NHS trust achieve almost all its targets in the new health service grading system.

Managers at the Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals NHS Trust have successfully passed 41 of 43 core standards on the Healthcare Commission Annual Health Check, which has replaced the annual star ratings.

Despite struggling to combat £30m debts during the final six months of the last financial year, they managed to meet a range of measures, including keeping patients, staff and visitors safe from the risk of infections like MRSA, and ensuring patients could complain without discrim- ination.

But it failed to ensure workers got mandatory training, or make sure adequate information was available on its services, care and treatment.

In explanation to the Healthcare Commission, the trust said: "It has not always been possible to release staff to attend mandatory training sessions because of workload pressures. This impacts on all areas but particularly in the clinical areas.

"Further progress in the early part of 2006-7 will ensure compliance.

"The ORH revised website was launched for a trial period in February/March. The revised layout and content has been designed taking account of the views of patient groups.

"A project has been set up to develop leaflets for patients for 20 or more clinical procedures."

Despite the two missed targets, ORH chief executive Trevor Campbell Davis praised staff.

He said: "The new standards and measurements cover areas that are genuinely important for patients, their families and our staff.

"This performance reflects the hard work of our staff throughout last year, and the real improvements that have been made, despite the operational and financial pressures."

The Annual Health Check has replaced the star rating system, which measured trusts with a narrow range of key targets.