The Guardian newspaper today published the results of its investigation into heart surgeons. The newspaper used 36 simultaneous applications under the Freedom of Information Act to extract for the first time national data about the individual mortality rates of all cardiac surgeons practising in the NHS.
The exercise found:
Informed choice necessitates that patients have access to individual surgeons’ mortality data. You can read more about this in earlier posts.
Hospitals deny patients facts on death rates
Sarah Boseley, John Carvel and Rob Evans
Ten years after the Bristol babies scandal, patients are still being denied the information they need to make an informed choice about heart surgery, a Guardian investigation has discovered.
The Kennedy inquiry into the deaths of babies at the Bristol Royal Infirmary, following disciplinary action against two surgeons whose success rates were not as good as colleagues at other children’s heart units, prompted the government to demand in 2001 that adult heart surgeons make their death rates public.
The information should have been available by last year, but many hospital trusts are still not collecting adequate data.
more
Leader: The heart of the matter
Landmark step on the road to more openness
The surgeon’s view