The government has announced the rollout of NHS league tables across England in a bid to provide patients with better care and value.
From now on, every trust in England will be ranked quarterly against consistent standards. Trusts will be scored into four performance segments, with the first segment representing the best performing areas and the fourth segment showing the most challenged.
Top performing trusts will be given more autonomy, including the ability to reinvest surplus budgets into frontline improvements such as new diagnostic equipment and hospital upgrades.
Health and Social Care Secretary Wes Streeting said: "We must be honest about the state of the NHS to fix it. Patients and taxpayers have to know how their local NHS services are doing compared to the rest of the country.
"These league tables will identify where urgent support is needed and allow high-performing areas to share best practises with others, taking the best of the NHS to the rest of the NHS.
"Patients know when local services aren’t up to scratch and they want to see an end to the postcode lottery - that’s what this government is doing. We’re combining the extra £26 billion investment each year with tough reforms to get value for money, with every pound helping to cut waiting times for patients."
Sir Jim Mackey, chief executive of NHS England, said: "NHS staff across the country work flat out to deliver the highest standard of care to their patients and every day we see or hear fantastic examples of this, but we still have far too much unwarranted local variation in performance.
"Letting patients and the public access more data will help to drive improvement even faster by supporting them to identify where they should demand even better from their NHS and by putting more power their hands to make informed decisions on their choice of provider.
"The data also supports local NHS Trust Boards and leadership teams to more easily identify the highest performing services in the NHS and adapt how they deliver care to drive improvement even faster going forward."
