London hospital is first to publish death rates
London hospital is first to publish death rates
A top London hospital has become the first in the UK to publish figures on the number of people who die while undergoing treatment there.
St George’s Hospital in Tooting, South London, has published all of its death rates by clinical speciality.
It means patients, relatives and the public can assess the chances of death depending on the clinical speciality to which they will be entrusted.
The NHS Trust that runs St George’s Hospital said the move was in line with the patient choice agenda, whereby patients will want increasingly detailed information about the clinical safety and reputation of hospitals.
The Department of Health said it supported the move, while the Patients’ Association said it was something it had been demanding for some time.
Trust chief executive Peter Homa said: “Our patients are increasingly well-informed, and will very shortly be in a position to make choices about where they go for their treatment. Many factors will play a part in those choices, and issues like car parking and cleanliness will be important.
“However, we also know that the more serious and complex the operation, the more the clinical safety, record and reputation of the hospital will be a factor for the patient, in consultation with their GP.”
To calculate the death rates across the clinical specialities, the trust has devised a risk-adjustment formula that assesses the factors that affect the death rate for any given speciality and then applies weightings to those factors.
The mortality rates are presented in the form of graphs on the hospital’s website.
Currently, the death rate for the whole hospital is just below three per cent.
Mr Homa added: “By using carefully developed risk adjustment systems, in a format that is easy to understand, we can show our patients not only that we have high standards in patient safety, but also that they are steadily improving in the long term.”
A spokesman for the Department of Health said: “We are supportive of measures to give patients more information about their local hospitals. We are already working to ensure responsible publication of data in a way that helps patients and improves the quality of care provided.
“It is up to individual trusts to give out their data whilst the national information is being gathered. The data released by St George’s healthcare trust has been adjusted to take in to account the different risk factors of individuals, so it is helpful for patients to see before they are admitted in to hospital.”
Michael Summers of the Patients’ Association said he hoped other hospitals would follow St George’s example.
“It is an important move at a time when the government is talking about patient choice,” he said.
“If patients have access to the information they can make informed choices with their GP about which hospital to go to.”
“It may also help drive up standards in hospitals, as information about poorly performing hospitals will be in the public domain.”
