A major review of NHS performance and a comprehensive series of league tables have left doctors and health managers looking for ways they can improve their performances.

Hospitals and health authorities have vowed to do all they can to improve medical care in Sussex.

Their promise follows today's release of detailed Government data highlighting how services in the area scored compared with other parts of the country.

Results achieved in East and West Sussex generally fared at the middle range of health standards across the country.

But the NHS in West Sussex made particular progress in reducing teenage pregnancies and East Sussex featured strongly in its treatment of women with breast cancer.

The second round of NHS performance indicators released by the Government reveal how well hospitals and health authorities coped with medical pressures last year.

The figures are an exhaustive list of how the country's 99 area health authorities and 275 hospital trusts fared in such areas as deaths following surgery, survival rates among cancer patients and accident and emergency waiting times.

East Sussex, Brighton and Hove Health Authority public health director Dr Graham Bickler said: "It appears we have done well in some areas, not so well in others, but more detailed analysis will be needed to get a more complete picture."

Linda Benny, spokeswoman for West Sussex Health Authority, added: "This information helps us focus on the issues which will improve care in West Sussex."

The NHS performance indicators allow hospitals and health authorities to gauge their performances.

They also give the public a chance to see the quality of care where they live.

Today's NHS performance indicators show access to care varies widely across the country, with nearly five times as many people waiting for treatment in poorer performing authorities.

In some health authority areas, nine out of ten people were seen as outpatients within 13 weeks of GP referral. But in others the figure is just six out of ten.

Health authorities, primary care groups and NHS trusts are being urged to work together to use the information gleaned through the latest set of indicators to review their services, identify areas for improvement and share information to achieve better results.

The indicators centre around six criteria: Improving people's health, fair access to services, delivering effective healthcare, efficiency, experiences of patients and their carers, and the eventual outcome of treatment.

A third set of NHS performance indicators will be published in the winter.

The 1998/99 indicators revealed:

*In East Sussex the number of deaths from cancer was 128 per 100,000 people. In West Sussex the figure was 121 per 100,000 people. The figures compare with the national rate of 137 per 100,000.

In West Sussex 101 people per 100,000 died from circulatory disease, compared with 109 per 100,000 in East Sussex and a national average of 134 per 100,000.

In East Sussex the number of people waiting less than two hours for emergency admission through accident and emergency was 86 per cent. In West Sussex the figure was 76 per cent. The national average was 90 per cent.

For five-year survival rates for women aged between 15 and 99 who were diagnosed with breast cancer between 1991 and 1993, both health authorities featured in the top 20. East Sussex's figure was 76.5 per cent, and West Sussex's figure was 77 per cent. The national average was 74 per cent.

West Sussex recorded one of the ten lowest
figures for pregnancies among girls aged under 18. Its rate was 31.5 per 1,000 girls. In East Sussex the figure was 40 per 1,000.

At Worthing and Southlands Hospitals NHS Trust, 4.2 per cent of patients were re-admitted as emergencies to hospital within 28 days of being discharged. Brighton Health Care NHS Trust had a figure of 4.5 per cent.

At Eastbourne
Hospitals NHS Trust 3.5 per cent of people admitted for emergency surgery died within 30 days of the procedure. At Brighton Health Care NHS Trust the figure was 4.5 per cent, compared with the national average of four per cent for a trust of its size.

At Worthing and Southlands 0.25 per cent of patients died within 30 days of undergoing non-emergency surgery, against a national average of 0.3 per cent for hospitals of those sizes. At Brighton Health Care NHS Trust the figure was 0.45, compared with the national average of about 0.5 per cent for busier areas.

Brighton Health Care NHS Trust medical director Dr Charles Turton said: "We welcome any indications of how we are performing as a trust. If there is an area that needs changing it is taken very seriously.

"If we are shown areas where we are falling down we try to improve them before they become a big issue."

The NHS performance indicators can be accessed by logging on to the website address: www.doh.gov.uk/nhsperformanceindicators.