A NEW at-a-glance guide to the region's hospitals suggests that there are wide variations in performance.

The independent Dr Foster Hospital Guide, published today, includes a simple colour-coded scorecard to highlight the best performing hospitals.

This guide is based on four aspects of care -clinical quality, patient satisfaction, efficiency and waiting times.

Among the 11 hospital trusts in the North-East and North Yorkshire, four centres stand out above the rest, according to publishing company Dr Foster.

In the North-East, more than half the hospitals performed better than average on at least one aspect of care, and four scored highly on two ratings.

On the clinical quality measure, three hospital trusts had significantly better than average mortality rates - South Tees Hospitals, Northumbria Healthcare and Newcastle Hospitals -while only one, South Tyneside, had a worse than expected rate.

Elsewhere in the North-East, the City Hospitals Sunderland Foundation Trust had an above-average score for waiting times and average scores for the others.

County Durham and Darlington, along with North Tees and Hartlepool trusts, had average scores in each category. South Tyneside was below average in clinical quality and efficiency and average in other categories.

The three hospital trusts in North Yorkshire had average scores in most categories. But Harrogate had an above-average score for waiting times, and York was above-average for patient satisfaction.

Scarborough had average scores in all categories.

According to Dr Foster statisticians, if all English hospitals with above-average death rates improved their performance to achieve the average score, 5,000 people would be saved every year, including 134 in the the North-East and 146 in Yorkshire and Humberside.

A Dr Foster spokesman said: "This information is vital to patients making choices about where they go for treatment.

"But death rates are not the only factor in choosing a hospital. Finding the shortest waiting time for treatment, or the hospital closest to home, family and friends can be just as important to people."

Full results are available at www.drfoster.co.uk