I AM writing with regard to the recent article “Hospital ‘one of the worst’ for bed sores”.

Unfortunately, the article omitted some of the information we provided to you which would have put things in perspective. So I would like to take the opportunity to explain this now to your readers.

When we examined the data identified by the Dr Foster Intelligence health consultancy referred to in the article, we found that 41 per cent of the patients included had in fact developed the pressure ulcer before they were admitted to hospital. Of the remainder, we found that in our desire to be transparent and thorough we were including a range of conditions from slight reddening to the development of a sore. One even included a patient whose nose was reddened by their spectacles. We are making sure that in future our recording is accurate and detailed.

We have also recently spent around £1m on new beds which have pressure relieving mattresses. We have reinforced the importance of risk assessment on admission and appropriate care plans to prevent pressure sores developing and if unfortunately a patient does start to develop one, to ensure quick identification and appropriate treatment.

Dee Sissons Director of patient safety