Action call on level of hospital deaths

Sir Brian Jarman, a former member of the inquiry into the deaths of heart patients at Bristol, said each of the trusts had at least 150 more deaths in 2007-8 than expected, with 4,600 unexpected deaths in total.

The 25 with a higher-than-expected hospital standardised mortality ratio included Hull and East Yorkshire trust and the Wakefield-based Mid Yorkshire trust.

Sir Brian said current regulation relying on self assessment was "fundamentally flawed" and he wanted the Care Quality Commission (CQC) to investigate although he admitted high death rates did not necessarily prove hospitals were doing anything wrong.

He said: "My main concern is that the Government only focuses on self-inspection rather than launching wider inquiries. An investigation may not prove anything is being done wrong but it could still boost our ability to reduce death rates."

The Department of Health said it was confident any concerns would be investigated.

"The CQC has conducted a regional review of all trusts identified as having high hospital standardised mortality ratios and the lowest patient safety scores. It confirmed in January that, at that time, they had no current concerns about these trusts such that would require intervention," it said.

CQC director of intelligence Richard Hamblin said: "CQC looks closely at the mortality rates of every trust in England alongside a range of other data, such as readmission rates, infection rates and reported incidents, as well as information from our inspections, the public and other organisations. It is all of this together that gives a picture of performance. We do not rely on trusts' self-assessment."