Two Birmingham hospitals have been highlighted for excessive death rates in new national research.

University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust, in charge of Selly Oak and Queen Elizabeth hospitals, and Heart of England Foundation Trust, running Heartlands, Solihull and Sutton Coldfield’s Good Hope hospitals were both among the research.

Professor Sir Brian Jarman, a leading expert who carried out the research, said thousands more patients had died between 2007 and 2008 at 25 trusts nationwide than would normally be expected.

He said each of the trusts had at least 150 more deaths than expected in the year 2007-08. Across the 25 trusts, there were 4,600 unexpected deaths in total.

He has called for an investigation by the Government.

The Department for Health insisted it is already taking “tough” action against underperforming hospitals.

Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust, University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire Trust and George Eliot Hospital NHS Trust in Nuneaton also had a higher than expected hospital standardised mortality ratio.

Sir Brian, a former member of an inquiry into the deaths of heart patients at Bristol Royal Infirmary who is now an emeritus professor at London’s Imperial College School of Medicine, said that after 10 years of “no action, I needed to say something”.