Patients will be able to compare the death rates of surgeons at every NHS hospital by next year, the national medical director has said, amid criticism that data published so far does not allow the public to make a meaningful choice.
Figures revealing the mortality rates of more than 3,500 consultants in 10
specialties are currently being published, with statistics for more than
2,000 orthopaedic surgeons and cardiologists among those released yesterday.
The disclosures had been hailed by ministers as a “revolution in transparency
in the NHS,” driving up standards and allowing patients to make informed
decisions.
However, many of the professional organisations who released the data have
done so in a way which means that the public cannot compare one doctor’s
death rates with those of another, or seek out those surgeons with the
lowest death rates.
Yesterday the British Orthopaediac Assocation and the British Cardiovascular
Intervention Society (BCIS) used a format which means patients can only look
up one named surgeon at a time, to compare them with the national average.
It means that a patient could find out that the doctor who is due to operate
on them has far higher mortality rates than most of his peers - yet be left
with no idea where to find a doctor carrying out the same procedures with
apparently better outcomes.
The same method had already been employed by the Society for Cardiothoracic
Surgery of Great Britain and the British Assocation of Endocrine and Thyroid
Surgeons, prompting widespread criticism from patients’ groups, who said the
presentation of the information made it “meaningless”.
Last night, Prof Sir Bruce Keogh, national medical director for NHS England, said changes will be made in future, so that the public could make clear comparisons between doctors.
He said: “The first thing was to get the data out - we had committed to doing this and this is pioneering work. Nowhere else in the world is doing this.”
Prof Sir Bruce said that from next year it will be made mandatory under the NHS Contract for every hospital to publish data listing the mortality rates of their surgeons, adjusted to take account of the risk profiles of the patients being treated.
Prof Keogh said he anticipates that national information will be published at the same time - so that the public can compare the rates of all NHS surgeons, wherever they work - but said an important debate lay ahead about how best to do this.
He said: “We will spend the next few months working on a way to do this in the most useful way for patients and others, and we want it presented in a common format. I think we have made a major step forward in getting the data out. This is the start of a journey.”
Data released yesterday about 1,594 orthopaedic surgeons carrying out more than 1 million hip and knee operations since 2003 showed an average mortality rate of around 0.5 per cent, with no surgeons classed as having unusually high death rates.
Figures from more than 600 cardiologists carrying out around 90,000 angioplasty procedures to treat narrowed arteries in 2012 found death rates, and those of stroke and heart attacks all fell within the expected range, when adjusted to take account of the types of patients being treated, BCIS said.
An audit of more than 4,000 patients who underwent weight-loss surgery last year found an in-hospital mortality rate of 0.07 per cent.
Last week the Vascular Society published outcome data which listed the mortality rates of all named surgeons carrying out surgery for an infrarenal abdominal aortic aneurism, some with death rates 14 times the national average. However, the society said that when the age of the patients and type of surgery was taken into account, the differences were no more than might be expected from random fluctuations.
Around twenty surgeons have refused consent to have their data published. They include nine orthopaedic surgeons and six vascular surgeons.
Last night, Prof Sir Bruce Keogh, national medical director for NHS England, said changes will be made in future, so that the public could make clear comparisons between doctors.
He said: “The first thing was to get the data out - we had committed to doing this and this is pioneering work. Nowhere else in the world is doing this.”
Prof Sir Bruce said that from next year it will be made mandatory under the NHS Contract for every hospital to publish data listing the mortality rates of their surgeons, adjusted to take account of the risk profiles of the patients being treated.
Prof Keogh said he anticipates that national information will be published at the same time - so that the public can compare the rates of all NHS surgeons, wherever they work - but said an important debate lay ahead about how best to do this.
He said: “We will spend the next few months working on a way to do this in the most useful way for patients and others, and we want it presented in a common format. I think we have made a major step forward in getting the data out. This is the start of a journey.”
Data released yesterday about 1,594 orthopaedic surgeons carrying out more than 1 million hip and knee operations since 2003 showed an average mortality rate of around 0.5 per cent, with no surgeons classed as having unusually high death rates.
Figures from more than 600 cardiologists carrying out around 90,000 angioplasty procedures to treat narrowed arteries in 2012 found death rates, and those of stroke and heart attacks all fell within the expected range, when adjusted to take account of the types of patients being treated, BCIS said.
An audit of more than 4,000 patients who underwent weight-loss surgery last year found an in-hospital mortality rate of 0.07 per cent.
Last week the Vascular Society published outcome data which listed the mortality rates of all named surgeons carrying out surgery for an infrarenal abdominal aortic aneurism, some with death rates 14 times the national average. However, the society said that when the age of the patients and type of surgery was taken into account, the differences were no more than might be expected from random fluctuations.
Around twenty surgeons have refused consent to have their data published. They include nine orthopaedic surgeons and six vascular surgeons.
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