Hospital league tables provoke clash: Bottomley dismisses Labour charge of statistical gimmickry. Celia Hall reports

A POLITICAL storm was brewing last night over the publication today of league tables that will compare the performance of virtually every hospital in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Virginia Bottomley, Secretary of State for Health, rounded on Labour criticism of her controversial performance indicators - which have cost more than pounds 500,000 to produce - and challenged Labour's three leadership candidates to support them openly.

Last night, responding angrily to criticism, she said: 'The only people with cause to oppose these tables are Labour's union backers. They are frightened of any measure which gives patients more power and leaves the unions themselves more exposed to scrutiny.

'I call on the three rivals for Labour's leadership to make their position clear. Will they put patients before protectionism and give their support to NHS performance tables?'

She described Labour's criticisms as 'miserable and carping'.

The star-rated tables for 470 English hospitals will show 23 performance comparisons. These are measured by waiting times in out-patient and accident departments, by in-patient waiting times for eight common specialities, and the percentage treated as day cases. There will be separate tables for ambulances, Wales and Northern Ireland. Mrs Bottomley says that the tables will be published annually. They do not include death rates and rates of patients treated successfully, which are expected to be added in future.

Information leaked to the Press Association said ministers had their own list and suggested that crude analysis of the 5-star rating system was not sufficiently sensitive for an easy reading of the best and worst hospitals.

One hospital was already congratulating itself yesterday. St George's Healthcare, south London, announced, prematurely, that it had scooped 13 of the 5-star ratings, five 4-star and three 3-star out of 23. Amanda Stokes-Roberts, its director of quality, said: 'The tables are a real incentive for everyone to work for 5-star ratings in every category.'

At the weekend, David Blunkett, Labour's health spokesman, described the tables as a public relations gimmick for the Government and yesterday criticised them as misleading and useless. He pointed out that the Audit Commission, which has assessed them, said 15-25 per cent of the systems used by hospitals to collect the information were inadequate.

He said the tables fail to give the two most interesting facts for patients - how long they have to wait before they get an out-patient appointment and how good a hospital is at curing them.

'Mrs Bottomley should admit publicly that the tables ignore the indicators most important to patients. The tables will merely lead to confusion for hospitals and patients,' he said.

Mrs Bottomley said last night: 'David Blunkett's bluster cannot conceal Labour's fundamental inability to come to terms with the concept of performance tables.'

Tomorrow: Four pages of tables & analysis