Pictured above: Guy Forster
Medical law and patient rights experts have raised serious
concerns about the quality of care provided by two hospital trusts
in the Midlands after a report raised concerns about high patient
death rates following surgery.
Irwin Mitchell's specialist team has called for immediate action
to be taken following the publication of the Hospital Guide 2010,
an independent report compiled annually by Dr Foster Intelligence
which considers the quality of service available at NHS trusts
across England.
It highlighted two hospital trusts in the Midlands - University
Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust and University Hospital
of North Staffordshire NHS Trust - that have both been found to
have higher than expected mortality rates after surgery.
Guy Forster, a solicitor with Irwin Mitchell's medical law and
patient's rights team in Birmingham, said: "We have represented a
number of families who have lost loved ones following surgical
errors at hospitals managed by both these Trusts. Findings like
these further highlight very serious concerns over patient safety
following surgery, which need to be urgently addressed.
"It is important to scrutinise why a particular hospital has a
higher than average mortality rate following surgery, to ensure
everything possible is being done to reduce the numbers of
avoidable deaths."
According to the Hospital Guide 2010, the trusts found to have
higher than average mortality rates following surgery include:
• Hull & East Yorkshire NHS Trust - 166
• University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust -
157
• University Hospital of North Staffordshire NHS Trust -
153
• Newcastle Upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust -
137
Dr Foster Intelligence calculates its statistics by taking into
consideration a patient's age, the severity of the illness and
demographics relating to the location where they live. This
provides a base figure of the number of patients who would normally
be expected to die at each hospital.
The Hospital Guide then compares this with the number of
patients that actually die. If the two numbers are the same, the
hospital receives a score of 100. If the mortality rate is ten per
cent less than expected the hospital receives a score of 90,
equally if the figure is ten per cent higher than expected, the
hospital would score 110.
Guy Forster concluded: "Many avoidable errors occur annually in
NHS hospitals and it is vital that this is reduced for the sake of
each and every victim. This can only happen if rigorous steps are
taken to improve procedures and ensure that lessons are learned
from past errors to protect patient safety in the future."