Hundreds of patients died at hospitals in the West Midlands last year when they were expected to have survived, it has emerged.

But Stafford Hospital, which has been at the centre of a public inquiry into standards of care, was the only one in the region where fewer patients than expected died.

For the first time the NHS has released death rate statistics for hospitals in England which examines deaths both in hospital and within 30 days of patients leaving the ward.

It calculates the risk of death based on a variety of different factors including the type of illness, age and sex of the patients.

The figures have exposed the West Midlands as the worst region in the country for having above average deaths in its hospitals.

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