NHS mortality rate higher than in US

Patients in English NHS hospitals are 45 per cent more likely to die than those treated in US wards.

Sir Brian Jarman, the inventor of the hospital standardised mortality rate, tracked death rates in seven countries over more than a decade. He found that in 2004, England was the worst out of the seven, with 22.5 per cent higher death rates than the average. Last year, patients were 45 per cent more likely to die in an English NHS hospital than in America – the best performer.

“Warnings about high death rates were ignored too frequently,” said Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt.