A hospital has received a national award for its performance at weekends.

Airedale NHS Foundation Trust, which runs Airedale General Hospital, was one of 12 to receive the highly commended honour for improving its performance at weekends, including low re-admission rates from 2011/12 to 2012/13.

Data gathered for the annual Dr Foster Hospital Guide – which analyses information from all NHS health trusts – showed that Airedale was also named as one of eight trusts with very low mortality rates for both weekdays and weekends, and was one of only six trusts with very low readmission rates for both weekdays and weekends.

Airedale is also one of 20 hospital trusts where mortality rates are significantly lower than expected on at least two out of four – and not high on any – of the key mortality measures, including deaths in low-risk conditions and deaths after surgery.

Trust chief executive Bridget Fletcher said: “I am delighted to receive this award on behalf of our staff as it is recognition of the hard work they do every day to make sure the care patients receive is of the highest quality and that it is carried out with the same level of safety whether it be during the week or at weekend.”

In Airedale, the weekend emergency standardised mortality ratios dropped from 87.91 – within the expected levels – in 2011/2012 to 78.13, which was lower than expected, in 2012/2013.