Hospital operations carried out in York are amongst the cheapest in the country, it was revealed today.

Health Minister Alan Milburn has unveiled a league table of how much operations cost in 235 health trusts.

York Health Services Trust came 189th, carrying out operations ten per cent cheaper than the national average.

Three other trusts in the region were placed much higher up the list placing them as carrying out some of the most expensive operations.

East Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust was in 15th place, Scarborough and North East Yorkshire Healthcare Trust came 22nd and Harrogate Health Care Trust came 35th.

Mr Milburn said the new league tables revealed " unexplained and unacceptable discrepancies in costs" and warned that high-cost hospitals would face new targets.

The league table covered 500 surgical procedures, involving £5 billion of NHS spending.

The cost of a hip replacement varied from £1,834 to £6,494, with an average of £3,678; while a cataract removal with a lens implant cost an average of £699 _ with costs ranging from £337 to £1,659.

Gilly Collinson, of the Scarborough and North-East Yorkshire Trust, said: "The fact that this trust works out of four different hospitals at Scarborough, Malton, Whitby and Bridlington does automatically mean that our costs are higher.''

Ms Collinson said the Scarborough trust performed very well under various NHS efficiency tables and hoped new Government targets would not force them to close hospitals in order to achieve economies of scale.

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