Death rates in Scottish hospitals vary widely, according to an independent health watchdog.
Only Aberdeen Royal Infirmary had a better than average mortality rate, the Doctor Foster Hospital Guide found. Researchers also claimed that while waiting times in England fell over the past year, there had been little or no improvement in Scotland.
The figures were compiled by the team, based at Imperial College, using data from hospitals across the UK. Analysts said they took into account factors in deaths such as age, sex, emergencies and length of stay in hospital.
They found three hospitals in Scotland - the Queen Margaret in Dunfermline, Falkirk and District Royal Infirmary and St John's in Livingston - had higher than average mortality rates.
Researcher Roger Taylor said: "This information is vital to patients making choices about where they go for treatment."
Scotland's information commissioner Kevin Dunion has called on the NHS to publish details of the death rates of individual surgeons.
The health service has been reluctant to release figures in the past as they may be open to misinterpretation.
The president of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh, John Smith, said it was right to inform the public, but any league table had to be comprehensive.
