Letter: Hospital league tables: statistics that confuse efficiency with effectiveness

Sir: Looking at the hospital league tables, it would appear that the Government has once again confused efficiency and effectiveness.

My wife has been receiving treatment at the Addenbrooke's Hospital, both as an in-patient and an out-patient, over the past 21 months, and we were very surprised to see that the hospital had come out as one of those with the lowest rating. For us, the medical treatment and attention has been of the best, and if waiting time in out-patients has sometimes been long we have put it down to the hospital's popularity creating pressure on resources.

We have no complaints about the medical treatment and approve of the medical staff's tendency, when in doubt, to keep a patient in for the extra night, rather than bundle them out in uncertain health to improve the hospital bed throughout.

Efficient or effective?

Yours sincerely,

DAVID FOSTER

Whatfield,

Suffolk

1 July