England publishes first tables of hospital performance

The Department of Health has published “league tables” for England allowing health professionals and their patients to scrutinise hospitals' performance for the first time since the NHS was established.

Two reports published last week compared the performance of hospitals against a set of six clinical indicators (see below) and how each health authority was performing in areas such as health improvement, and care outcomes (see below). The reports were compiled over two years by using the 11 million patient episode records collected annually in England.

The report on clinical indicators showed wide variations in death rates. …