New hospital league tables showing the death rates of patients have been cautiously welcomed in Bradford.

The move, expected to be confirmed by Health Secretary Frank Dobson today, comes in the wake of the scandal at Bristol Royal Infirmary where 29 children died after heart operations.

From October, when the tables are introduced, there will be an annual chart of the numbers of deaths at hospitals treating patients for major diseases including cancer and heart problems.

Ministers hope the tables will act as a powerful weapon in raising standards and will also act as an early warning system of problems at specific hospitals.

A Bradford Hospitals NHS Trust spokesman said in principle it welcomed open debate about the way different hospitals across the country performed but it was important "like was compared with like" as medical outcomes depended on a variety of issues.

"To give us the best idea of how hospitals are performing we need to take into account different factors such as the make-up of the population, the age of the community and the complexity of surgery that is being carried out."

Dr Philip Bickford Smith, public affairs secretary of the British Medical Association at Bradford Royal Infirmary, said the organisation supported moves to improve information about the NHS but it was important the measures were not drawn up in a rush following the problems in Bristol.

"The legal tables which will come out shortly need to be very carefully evaluated - in the words of the BMA carry a health warning.

"Bradford has done very well in terms of league tables that have been published up until now on waiting times and I have every hope we would do well in terms of health outcomes."

Mr Dobson has said that the new tables on mortality rates would be carefully weighted to ensure they reflected factors such as the age of patients treated and complicating factors surrounding treatment.

"It can't just be the crude figures," he said.

"Some surgeons are dealing with people who are more seriously ill and much less likely to survive.

"So we are going to produce figures which aren't misleading, and which do reflect the difficulty of the operation."

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