Tories condemn NHS on safety regime
The NHS safety regime is "fatally flawed", the Tories said after research found 12 hospitals were "significantly underperforming".
Nine of those accused of serious failings had been rated good or excellent by official regulator, the Care Quality Commission, prompting calls for a public inquiry.
The latest Hospital Guide from the Dr Foster organisation also identified 27 trusts with unusually high mortality rates - totalling 5,000 more deaths than expected last year.
Bottom of the table was Basildon and Thurrock University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, which last week had an emergency task force ordered in to improve standards.
The action was ordered after a report slammed poor hygiene and standards of care and a death rate around a third higher than the national average. The CQC insisted that there was no need for similar interventions elsewhere and said some of the Dr Foster data was "flaky".
Health minister Mike O'Brien also questioned the findings and several trusts among the named and shamed accused Dr Foster of using incomplete figures which failed to show the true picture.
But the part-private, part-NHS organisation stood by its methodology and opposition parties seized on the data as evidence of a breakdown in the system.
Shadow health secretary Andrew Lansley said: "Gordon Brown promised that he would have a 'deep clean' and that all NHS hospitals would be clean and safe. He has failed. Labour said that their new inspection regime would keep NHS patients safe. It is now clear that regime is fatally flawed.
"But instead of taking action to act on this report and fix the problem Labour seem more concerned with trying to shoot the messenger."
He called for an increase in spot checks and a move away from of self assessment.
