Indeed, the press release posted by the Healthcare Commission makes clear that the next stage is for the Commission to carry out a “thorough check” on the accuracy of the Trust’s self-published reports.

This line: “There are three standards that relate to the Hygiene Code and in all three cases more trusts are declaring non-compliance compared to last year” is buried near the bottom of the release, after 300 words on how well the UK’s 394 NHS Trusts say they’re doing. The Trusts include acute care hospitals, primary care providers, ambulance services and mental health services.

Given that the public reports submitted are compiled by the Trusts themselves, against 24 core standards, you might wonder why they admit to any problems at all?

Except the Commission says that the one-in-four Trusts which admit they have a hygiene problem are “less likely to face an inspection” as long as they can show they are trying to do something about the issue.

And, given that the key way the Commission checks up on the truth of the Trust's report by cross-checking against published data (such as MRSA figures), Trusts who fail to meet core hygiene standards are better off if they come clean.

Indeed, Healthcare Commission boss Anna Walker, talking on Radio Four, said she “welcomed” the figures showing so many Trusts were failing to meet those standards because it meant the failing health bodies would wake up this morning determined "to put that right on behalf of patients".

You would hope they’d woken up to the need to do something about tackling hospital infections last year – or the year before. Even last month would have been better than deciding to act from this morning.

Those hygiene standards are the sorts of things you would expect to be essential for any health provider, they include:

- Decontamination: 14.3% (56) Trusts could not say they properly decontaminate all reusable medical devices. Last year’s figure for non-compliance was 12.6%

- Healthcare-associated infection: 14% (55) Trusts could not say they had systems in place to reduce the risk of infection to patients, visitors and staff. This figure is more than double last year’s (7.2%).

Which means the shockingly poor hygiene standards seen at one hospital by a sweeble writer are probably being replicated at dozens more.

Apart from hygiene, what else were the NHS Trusts admitting failure on?

Well, sixty-nine (17.6%) admit failing to keep adequate patients records; 16.5% of them (65) couldn’t ensure their staff took part in compulsory training; fewer trusts have proper procedures for disposing of waste; fewer Trusts say they are learning from patient safety incidents; fewer trusts say they are handling medicines properly; fewer Trusts are meeting core standards for patent dignity and respect and fewer (30) Trusts can say they challenge discrimination, promote equality and respect human rights.

The better news is that the Commission said 40% of trusts were meeting all 24 core standards - up from 34% last year.

The Healthcare Commission’s annual health check of English NHS trusts, which replaced the system of star ratings. The final results – after the Commission has checked the Trusts’ own reports against 2000 other sources of information, are published in October. Last year, The Commission "adjusted" the reported results for HALF of all trusts.

The report summary is here

To find out how an individual health trust says it did, pore through this Excel file. Except you need to have the file open and the list of standards the codes relate to work it out - not exactly the public declaration the Health Commission and the Trusts suggest.