PATIENTS who undergo urgent surgery at York Health Service NHS Trust hospital have a "significantly better than average" chance of surviving the crucial 30-day post-operative stage.

Figures published by the Department of Health today reveal a death rate for non-elective admissions of around 2,500 per every 100,000 people.

Health Ministers said this represents a "significant improvement" of around two per cent between March 2000 and 2001 - leaving York with one of the ten best records in the country for large acute trusts.

Northallerton NHS Trust was also below average at around 2,600 deaths per every 100,000 patients - but there was bad news for Scarborough and North East Yorkshire and Harrogate Trusts.

The national average is just under 3,000 yet Harrogate had a death rate of around 3,200. And Scarborough's death rate of around 3,700 was given a "red" rating of "significantly poorer than average".

Hospital bosses will be asked to find out the reasons for the high figure and implement reforms to bring it down.

Encouragingly, the NHS performance indicators show the number of people dying within 30 days of admission with a stroke is below the national average of around 28,000 per every 100,000 at all four North Yorkshire trusts.

But the indicators also reveal the number of patients waiting less than six months - just over 70 per cent - for in-patient admission at York was worse than the national average of around 75 per cent.

Harrogate, Scarborough and Northallerton all have significantly better than average records. The percentage of patients seen within 13 weeks of GP written referral was slightly better than the national average of around 77 per cent at Northallerton, Scarborough, and Harrogate. York, though, was slightly worse-off with around 75-per cent being seen on time.

Northallerton, Scarborough and Harrogate also scored a 100 per cent record for seeing women with suspected breast cancer within two weeks - a key Government target. York scored around 98 per cent - which was just above the national average.

The good news is that this figure represented a percentage improvement of almost 40 per cent year-on-year between the first quarter of 2000 and 2001 - one of the largest hikes in the country.

Updated: 08:37 Wednesday, February 20, 2002