Figures ranking surgeons by how many people die in their operating theatres are to be published next year

League tables ranking surgeons by how many people die in their operating theatres will be published next year, the new independent quango in charge of the NHS has announced.

In what it describes as a "revolution" for patients, the NHS commissioning board says in its planning guidance for 2013-14 that "providers should by summer 2013 publish consultant-level data covering survival rates and quality of care for 10 specialties including cardiac, vascular and orthopaedic surgery".

The step is seen as key to driving patient choice in the NHS, although doctors have been resistant to such changes in the past. Only after the outcry from the Bristol children's heart surgery scandal and years of campaigning did surgeons make public their survival rates for heart bypass operations and aortic valve replacement surgery.

. Sir David Nicholson, the chief executive of the board, told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme that "the drive of professional pride over surgeons' performance data was very important".

"We want to make the NHS the best customer service in the world by doing more to put patients in the driving seat. We are determined to focus on outcomes and the rights people have under the NHS constitution, as well as ensure those most in need gain most from the support we provide.

"At the heart of our approach is local control over decision-making. We want to put power in the hands of clinicians who know their patients best. We want to give them the money, information and tools to do the job. And we want the public to have the information they need to make choices and participate fully in the development of their health services."

The new guidance comes against a backdrop of radical change in the NHS – where improvement is driven by clinical commissioning groups, clusters of GPs charged with purchasing care for patients.

The document outlines the incentives and levers that will be used to improve services and "is a key step towards the new system for commissioning healthcare in England, built around 211 local clinical commissioning groups (CCGs), led by GPs".