SIX health trusts in the region will be asked to explain why their operations cost the taxpayer more than the average, in a new Government crackdown.

Four hospitals and two ambulance services in the North-East and North Yorkshire may be wasting cash through inefficiencies, according to tables compiled to compare every trust in England.

The most "expensive" hospital is South Tyneside Healthcare, where treatments cost 13 per cent more than the national average.

County Durham Acute Hospitals (eight per cent), City Hospitals Sunderland (three per cent) and South of Tyne and Wearside Mental Health (two per cent) are also more costly.

North East Ambulance Service (12 per cent) and Tees East and North Yorkshire Ambulance (one per cent) also have higher costs.

John Hutton, a health minister, said the results of the National Reference Cost Index (RCI) survey had been sent to local health managers, who would be expected to "take action".

He said: "Its main purpose is to provide a basis for comparison, within and outside the NHS, between organisations and down to the level of individual treatments.

"It is the responsibility of the boards of trusts and primary care trusts to take careful note of significant variances affecting their organisations and to take appropriate action."

The survey's authors insisted their figures had been adjusted to reflect different specialisms and highly complex operations, such as neurosurgery - making the comparison fair.

The cost effectiveness report was released as part of a new payment by results scheme which is designed to stamp out huge variations in the cost of operations.

A national tariff, to be phased in over four years, sets a fixed price for 48 different procedures, ranging from cataract surgery to a heart bypass operation.

Hospitals that carry out operations below the tariff price will be able to keep the profit. That money could then be spent on equipment.

Meanwhile, hospitals that fail to reduce their costs will face losing millions of pounds a year - a powerful incentive to improve efficiency.

A spokesman for the County Durham trust said: "We are aware of the issue and we are addressing it."

South Tyneside Healthcare could not be contacted for comment last night.