Patients will soon be able to check the success rate of individual heart surgeons, under plans unveiled by the Department of Health.

The move comes in response to the Bristol inquiry into the deaths of children at the Royal Infirmary between 1988 and 1995.

“When the system is in full operation any surgeon or any hospital will be able to look day by day at their results and compare it immediately with the figures for the rest of the country,” insisted Dr Roger Boyle, national director for heart disease.

Heart units were asked to submit data on individual surgeons for publication in April.  So far, the Society of Cardiothoracic Surgeons has only published mortality data for aortic valve and heart bypass surgery not naming individuals.  Although IT problems have been cited as a cause for the delay, the society has expressed concern about the fairness of the government’s proposal to publish more detailed information.

An audit of more than 82,000 adult patients between 2001 and 2003 found a death rate of 1.8 per cent, with no surgeons having a mortality rate of above 5.5 per cent for the three years.
“No one is shying away from having the discussion about their own results,” said president-elect Sir Bruce Keogh.  “They are shying away from results being presented in such a way that’s going to see them crucified because they take on cases that are high risk or difficult.”

Opponents argue that surgeons taking on particularly ill patients will look bad unfairly, and may in turn refuse more complex cases with a low chance of success.

“Surgeons will say, ‘I’m sorry this patient is a higher risk than normal so I can’t take on this patient because it will make the figures look much worse’,” said heart specialist Professor Martin Cowie.  “That’s what’s happening elsewhere in the world when they have introduced this system.”