Hospital surgery death rates
The government is preparing to publish for the first time the death rates of patients undergoing major surgery at NHS hospitals in England. • link
The move will expose alarming variations in the mortality rates of NHS trusts carrying out commonplace procedures, including hip and knee replacements and surgery of the oesophagus and abdominal aorta, the main blood vessel.
It will be the first time anywhere in the world that a government has systematically exposed the work of rival hospital teams, giving patients an opportunity to choose to be treated where their lives are least at risk.
The data, which is to be put up on the NHS Choices website during the summer, is expected to reveal a disproportionately high death rate in hospitals carrying out fewer operations, where the surgeons have less opportunity to hone their skills.
Ministers think publication of the figures will drive up standards by forcing trusts to improve performance or withdraw from medical specialties at which they do not excel.
At this stage the published data will give results for hospital units, not individual surgeons. But Ben Bradshaw, the health minister, has instructed that the NHS Choices website should eventually let patients compare the performance of individual surgeons and GPs, heralding a big switch in the balance of medical power in favour of the patient. (...)
The move will expose alarming variations in the mortality rates of NHS trusts carrying out commonplace procedures, including hip and knee replacements and surgery of the oesophagus and abdominal aorta, the main blood vessel.
It will be the first time anywhere in the world that a government has systematically exposed the work of rival hospital teams, giving patients an opportunity to choose to be treated where their lives are least at risk.
The data, which is to be put up on the NHS Choices website during the summer, is expected to reveal a disproportionately high death rate in hospitals carrying out fewer operations, where the surgeons have less opportunity to hone their skills.
Ministers think publication of the figures will drive up standards by forcing trusts to improve performance or withdraw from medical specialties at which they do not excel.
At this stage the published data will give results for hospital units, not individual surgeons. But Ben Bradshaw, the health minister, has instructed that the NHS Choices website should eventually let patients compare the performance of individual surgeons and GPs, heralding a big switch in the balance of medical power in favour of the patient. (...)
guardian, 28.05.08
Etiquetas: NHS
1 Comments:
Operating tables
The news that surgical mortality rates in England are to be published is a positive development (Report, May 29). linl
But it is not the first time that any government anywhere in the world has released such information. Scotland has already laid claim to that world-first title. Comprehensive surgical mortality data was published in Scotland in 2006 when, following a freedom of information application, I required the health service to disclose the mortality rates of every individual surgeon - not just by hospital unit as is being proposed in England. It is worth recalling that at the time clinicians expressed their concern that the data would be misinterpreted by the public and that surgeons might not carry out high-risk operations for fear of being stigmatised in league tables. Neither of these fears has come to pass. It is a welcome step forward in accountability and transparency to have this type of information proactively published.
Kevin Dunion, Scottish information commissioner
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