THE activity of NHS surgeons across England was under scrutiny today after the number of procedures carried out by individual surgeons was analysed by scientists in York.

The chief executive of York Health Services NHS Trust, Simon Pleydell, was among those receiving data today highlighting how much NHS work his consultants were carrying out.

The report aims to create more "transparency and accountability" in the work that NHS surgeons do.

Figures compiled over the past decade and analysed by Professor Alan Maynard and his team at the University of York over two years, were published for the first time today, showing the most active and least active NHS surgeons.

York Health Services NHS Trust is shown to be highly active, with almost all surgeons at or above average activity levels.

But many trusts show disparity between the activity levels of one surgeon and another.

Professor Maynard, who is also chairman of York Health Services NHS Trust, said the information would raise questions nationally, such as why some surgeons were more active than others and whether some surgeons were spending more time doing private procedures than NHS operations.

He said the data would eventually help with job plans for surgeons and enable the General Medical Council to renew surgical licences effectively.

It would also lead to better understanding of the long-term success or surgical procedures as data would eventually be linked to death certificate information.

The five surgical specialties looked at were urology, ear, nose and throat, general surgery, trauma and orthopaedics and ophthalmic surgery

Prof Maynard said this was not an attack on surgeons, but instead aimed to help them.

He said: "We have been collecting this data since 1987 and this is the first time it's been published in this national way.

"The hope is that the data will be better validated and more useful for managers' purposes.

"When consultants aren't carrying out surgical procedures they might be doing other things, attending committee meetings, training other doctors, but this data implies we don't know what they are doing."

Updated: 12:12 Thursday, December 19, 2002