YORK Health Trust has the fifth highest mortality rate in the Northern and Yorkshire National Health Service region according to a national report by a top health expert.

The trust was ranked 19th out of 23 hospital trusts in the region for death rates in the Sunday Times Good Hospital Guide.

The mortality index has been drawn up by Sir Brian Jarman, emeritus professor of primary healthcare at Imperial College School of Science, Technology and Medicine in London.

It compares the relative rates of mortality in hospital trusts after allowing for factors such as differences in types of patients treated and is an indicator of the quality of clinical care in the hospital.

A trust with an average performance would have an index of 100, while figures greater than 100 indicate a higher mortality rate than expected for the types of patients treated.

York Health Trust has an above average mortality rate of 106. West Cumbria Healthcare Trust has the highest mortality rating with 115, while Airedale has the lowest at 84.

The guide also details the trust's performance in a number of other areas including the percentage of inpatients and outpatients admitted or seen within six months and the percentage of urgent breast cancer referrals seen by a specialist within two weeks of GP referral.

Advance figures from the report show that York Health Trust has 22 doctors per 100 beds compared with the Leeds Teaching Hospitals which have the highest figure of 39 doctors, and Pinderfields and Pontefract Hospitals which have the lowest figure of 18 doctors per 100 beds.

Other North Yorkshire trusts fare better on the mortality figures, with Northallerton Health Services coming fourth with an index of 89, Harrogate Health Care sixth with 94, and Scarborough and North-East Yorkshire Health Care eighth with 96.

Dr Mike Porte, medical director for York Health Services NHS Trust, said: "We welcome the publication of these figures.

"We see this guide as part of an ongoing process to help the public make informed choices and assist health care professionals to improve upon their practice.

"We will use it alongside other information, such as the Department of Health's clinical indicator tables, in order to determine areas of good clinical practice and areas that we can improve upon."

More details will be published in two supplements with the Sunday Times tomorrow and on January 21.