מתוך medicontext.co.il
LONDON (Reuters Health) – The chances of dying after heart bypass surgery are nearly four times higher in some British hospitals than in others, The Times newspaper reported on Monday.
Publishing a 20-page guide to heart surgery, the newspaper said analysis of bypasses carried out in English state-run hospitals from 1998 to 2001 showed that many patients were "dying needlessly" because of wide variations in care.
"The results of the best hospitals are about four times better than those of the worst–an enormous gap that will surprise many patients and a few surgeons," it said.
The standardised mortality ratio was only 48 at the United Bristol Healthcare Trust but as high as 182 at the University Hospital of Coventry and Warwickshire. The University Hospitals of Leicester were closest to the national average with a figure of 102.
The analysis was carried out by researchers at Imperial College School of Medicine in London for Dr. Foster, an independent healthcare information company.
The figures were taken from 29 hospitals that carry out the vast majority of heart bypass operations. The raw data was standardised by age, sex, degree of urgency of the procedures and various other severity measures.
Its publication was supported by Health Secretary Alan Milburn who told the newspaper that the public has the right to know. "We can't behave as a secret society–we have to open up."
"Publishing more information will act as a powerful lever to ratchet up performance," the minister said. "The last thing that anybody wants to find is that they are not doing as well as they could."
The Times said that heart surgery death rates in New York had fallen by 41% over the past 5 years since the New York Times won a legal battle to be allowed to publish similar figures.
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