Patients want to know about factors such as surgical success rates

Yet less wealthy patients are more willing to accept being treated at hospitals with poorer reputations, suggesting cost is a factor.

The findings come from surveys of 22,500 London patients offered a choice of where they were treated in 2002-4.

British medical experts said better information was needed to help patients make these choices.

Choice

By the end of the year, all patients in England will be offered a choice of four or five hospitals by their GP when they are being referred for treatment.

Yet hospitals do not have to provide information on things such individual surgeon's success and failure rates for different operations.

Accessing quality healthcare should be a right and not the preserve of people who know how to work the system Steve Webb Lib Dem Health spokesman

The surveys show that such information is important to patients making a choice about where to receive their care.

Four academic bodies - the Picker Institute Europe, the University of London and Imperial College, the University of York and RAND Europe, the King's Fund and City University - sent out questionnaires to patients about to be offered a choice of where they wished to be treated.

Two-thirds said they would opt to go to an alternative hospital rather than their local one.

Quality of care

Factors listed as having influenced their choice were: success rate for the operation in question, reputation of the surgeon and hospital and standards of cleanliness and quality of communication between the hospital and GP.

Other issues mentioned were the option of follow-up care closer to home, shorter waiting times and transport and travel issues.

Those patients who were treated at alternative hospitals were much more satisfied with their care than those treated at their local hospital.

Patients who were less likely to go to another hospital were those over 60 and with low educational and income levels.

Availability and cost of transport was also a factor - if it would be paid for, patients were more likely to want to move further afield for better quality care.

Lead researcher Peter Burge, from RAND Europe, said: "This study shows that waiting time isn't everything.

" Some patients will be prepared to wait considerable amounts of time in order to obtain treatment at a hospital with a better reputation."

Inequality

Professor John Appleby from the King's Fund said: "If the government is serious about offering real choice to NHS patients, then it has to start providing the right sort of information.

"It is health outcomes that are important."

A spokesman from the Department of Health said: "We have already delivered increased patient choice, with almost 40,000 patients having taken up the offer of faster treatment in another hospital.

"We will do more to improve the patient experience. "We are enhancing information services such as the website nhs.uk to provide easily understood comparative information on NHS services which will be made available to patients and GPs to support choice."

Liberal Democrat health spokesman Steve Webb warned that the least well-advised patients could easily end up with inferior care.

"It is clear that wealthier people, and those with access to better information about the quality of services will be able to get access to the best care.

"Accessing quality healthcare should be a right and not the preserve of people who know how to work the system.