Hospitals in UK to publish death statistics of doctors

New rules in the UK have made it mandatory for hospitals to publish how many patients die under the care of each doctor following operations in adult heart surgery, hip and knee surgery, head and neck surgery as also a number of other operations.

The data would be released next summer and would become a contractual obligation from 2014-15 after moves to release more mortality data failed to make any headway after 2009.

According to The Daily Telegraph, despite mortality data for a selection of heart operations being available for around 10 years, this information had not been updated since 2009.

With the data, patients would be able to compare the performance of consultants in order to choose where to be treated.

The guidance document issued by the new National Health Scheme (NHS) Commissioning Board, outlines how local contracts should be laid out with rewards for improving care and fines for delays or poor treatment.

Patients would also be required to provide real-time feedback on any NHS service by 2015, according to the document.

To offer more convenient NHS for patients, medical director Sir Bruce Keogh, would lead a forum to investigate how routine services including outpatients appointments, tests, scans, and GP appointments could be provided seven days a week.

Under the new rules unveiled today, the NHS Commissioning Board – would run the health service from next year, both public and private hospitals would need to report data covering survival rates and quality of care.

The details would be broken down by consultants – and would also include performance of the junior doctors working under their guidance. The information would be freely available to the public.

The move comes as part of the board's plan to improve healthcare across the NHS for the first two years' operation.

Other initiatives are as follows:

All patients would be able to give feedback in real time on any NHS services by 2015 and hospitals and GPs would have to demonstrate their response to criticism
The NHS would move to "seven days a week" working with appointments and operations being made available at weekends.

New commissioning bodies would be expected to make quantifiable improvements across five areas including prevention of premature death, quality  of life enhancement for people with long-term conditions; and helping people to recover from injury.