A GOOD hospital guide, which claims to provide an insight into medical standards, is published this weekend.

The league table shows that hospitals in Newcastle and in Northallerton, North Yorkshire, have below-average death rates compared with the rest of the region's hospitals.

It also claims that the hospitals with the highest number of doctors per 100 beds are the Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals (36), South Tees Acute Hospitals, Middlesbrough (36), and North Tees and Hartlepool (32).

And 86 per cent of Newcastle heart patients are seen within 13 weeks, compared with 60 per cent of South Tees heart patients and 61 per cent in North Durham.

The Sunday Times guide is based on death rates compiled by a team at London's Imperial College, under the direction of Professor Sir Brian Jarman.

The rates take into account factors such as age, sex and diagnosis, which are beyond the hospital's control.

A trust with an average performance would have a mortality index score of 100. Figures greater than 100 indicate a higher mortality rate than expected for the types of patients treated, and vice-versa.

North-East hospitals and their mortality index scores: Newcastle (87), Northallerton (89), Harrogate (94), Scarborough (96), South Tees (98), City Hospitals, Sunderland (100), North Tees and Hartlepool (101), North Durham (102), South Durham (104), Gateshead Health (106), South Tyneside (106).