Toulouse top in hospital league

Unofficial, but influential, research crowns Toulouse the best public hospital in France, followed by Lille

PATIENTS in Toulouse receive the best hospital treatment in all of France, according to a new league table published today.

The city's Centre Hospitalier Universitaire (CHU) came top in the research by weekly news magazine Le Point on the 50 best public hospitals in France.

It is followed by Lille, Bordeaux, Pitié-Salpêtrière in Paris and Montpellier. Also featuring in the top 10 were Strasbourg, Nantes, Nancy, Rennes and Rouen.

The list only includes hospitals that provide a broad range of treatments - private specialist clinics are not included.

The Le Point league table is unofficial but considered influential. The study is partly based on anonymous patients' medical records data which can be applied for to use in research.

It marks hospitals by specific illnesses, with the scores combined to give an overall picture of how well a hospital is performing.

The French health ministry does not produce an official league table but has previously published grades linked to hospital superbugs. The latest results are available at www.icalin.sante.gouv.fr

Separately, every four years hospitals have to be certified by health watchdog the Haute Autorité de Santé, which looks at elements such as food and treatment of patients.

Recent reports can be found at http://tinyurl.com/hasreports