The Hospital Guide
“The Hospital Guide has consistently provoked debate and, more importantly, action to improve quality of care.” - Tim Straughan, Chief Executive, The NHS Information Centre for Health and Social Care
Hospital Guide 2012
The 2012 Dr Foster Hospital Guide containing performance data on every hospital trust in England is now available.
In addition to publishing traditional mortality indicators, this year’s Hospital Guide highlights information on the vital link between quality and efficiency. Methodology documents for all indicators are publicly available on our website.
Download the 2012 Hospital Guide.
See how your local hospital is performing 
Check out our new interactive website, My Hospital Guide, to view performance of your local hospital and those across England. View mortality rates and efficiency metrics, then share and discuss your views on Facebook and Twitter, using #drfhg.
My Hospital Guide will be updated quarterly and will offer metrics and benchmarking data of trusts across England, analysed in a clear, concise way.
Visit My Hospital Guide.
Trust of the Year
We are delighted to name Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Trust the 2012 Dr Foster Trust of the Year. It scored well on our efficiency index and has lower than expected rates on two of the four mortality measures (and no concerns on the other two measures).
Honourable mention was awarded to Frimley Park Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and Airedale NHS Foundation Trust, both of which performed well on our measures.
Background of the Hospital Guide
Dr Foster was set up to empower patients and improve transparency in healthcare. The annual Hospital Guide publishes data for trusts across England for the benefit of consumers and healthcare professionals alike.
Now in its eleventh year, the Hospital Guide adheres strictly to its original mission: to publish an independent and authoritative analysis of the variations that exist in acute hospital care in a way that is meaningful for clinicians and managers and understandable to patients and the public.
The 2001 Hospital Guide was the first time that information was published on how well or badly a hospital was performing. Publishing this data and making it public was a revolutionary idea that has been widely credited with helping to raise standards of care.
Information is based on analysis of admissions data (by the Dr Foster Unit at Imperial College London) and a Department of Health-approved questionnaire which 99 per cent of NHS trusts completed in 2012.
“Dr Foster’s 11th annual Hospital Guide…is good news for the NHS. For patients, because it allows them to see how well local hospitals are doing. For clinicians, because it illuminates their performances, inspiring them to keep up the good work if they are doing well, or improve if something is going wrong. And for society, because better care means fewer readmissions, freeing up time and money to treat more people so the NHS can meet the increasing demands of an ageing population.”
– Jeremy Hunt, Secretary of State for Health, December 2012
Previous editions
The last five editions of the Hospital Guide are available for download in PDF format:
The Hospital Guide 2008
The Hospital Guide 2007View the methodology documents for the latest Hospital Guide.
Earlier documents
- Hospital Guide media pack - Released in October 2012, the media pack contains information and strategies for the upcoming Hospital Guide publication.
- What’s in the Hospital Guide 2012? – Released in July 2012, this document set out the metrics planned for inclusion and anticipated timetable.