Hospitals face clinical assessment

Health Service Performance Tables Expanded

Hospital league tables, now in their fourth year, measure the speed with which patients are seen - but not the quality of care. They have been condemned by many in the medical profession as meaningless.

League tables in Scotland already include death rates, and the previous, Conservative government had planned to adopt this nationwide.

Ministers have published this year's tables for National Health Service trusts in England and Wales - based on waiting times. They have also announced an expansion of the way performance is assessed.

Labour once dismissed the tables as a gimmick, but now plans to extend them to include fifteen clinical indicators. Among these are the number of deaths in hospital within 30 days of surgery following a heart attack, and the number of patients re-admitted as emergency cases within 28 days of being discharged from hospital.

Prof. Paul Jarrett, Kingston Hospital

Death statistics "relatively meaningless"

The Health Minister, Baroness Jay, said that for too long NHS performance had been judged only by management and financial targets. The new Government was committed to improving the information available to patients and the public about the quality and effectiveness of treatment in the NHS.

The new indicators were devised with the help of doctors from the British Medical Association. But they have been criticised by some surgeons. They say specialist units dealing with very sick patients may score badly, even though they are giving the best possible treatment.

Baroness Jay: "People deserve better information"

Baroness Jay said at a news conference that every effort would be made to ensure that the new indicators were fair.

"You need to be very clear that you are measuring like with like. It's clearly inappropriate and wrong if a hospital with a good record and famous surgeons appears not to get a high rating because it's taking a very difficult case mix.

"That has to be taken forward with the profession, but it doesn't mean we shouldn't try to measure quality."