A HEALTH watchdog has urged officials to look at standards and service in South Bucks hospitals which ahve been rated among the lowest in the region, according to a national survey of NHS hospitals.

Ailsa Harrison from South Bucks Community Health Council spoke out after South Buckinghamshire NHS Trust which runs hospitals in Wycombe and Amersham as well as the Chalfonts and Gerrards Cross, Chesham and Marlow community hospitals was ranked in the bottom five, 23rd out of 27.

The figures, published in The Sunday Times Good Hospital Guide, were arrived at by looking at mortality rates in hospitals. The regional average is 98 yet South Bucks scored 104.

The figure compares relative rates of mortality after allowing for factors such as differences in the types of patients treated, for example a high number of elderly patients in South Bucks. A figure over 100 indicates a higher mortality rate than expected for the types of patients treated.

The rating put the trust behind nearby Stoke Mandeville Hospital, which had a mortality rate of 93, Oxford's John Radcliffe Hospital which had a rate of 96 and the Royal Berkshire which was 14th with 97.

The Heatherwood and Wexham Park NHS Trust, based in Ascot and Slough, was the worst in the region with a mortality index of 115.

The number of doctors per 100 beds was also below average at 33, nationally NHS Trusts generally have 35. The number of nurses per 100 beds is also below the average of 119 at 118.

Complaints were rated at seven per 1,000 patients, one more than the average, but 79 per cent of those grievances were cleared up within four weeks.

Ailsa Harrison said: "It is not doing as well as we would hope. We hope the hospital will look at these tables and really make sure that the care is up to the best standards."

Chief Executive of South Buckinghamshire NHS Trust, Roy Darby, said: "Broadly speaking the trust appears to be about average overall."

Mr Darby said the higher rate of complaints was felt to be caused by a more educated and more vocal local population but that the clear-up rate for complaints was higher than most trusts.