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Patients ‘more likely to die in smaller hospitals’

14/06/2010

National Health Service patients are more likely to die in smaller hospitals following surgery, according to a new investigation.

The results of a major exercise looking at one particular procedure – vascular surgery – show a massive variation in death rates among patients admitted for planned operations and reveal that some hospitals have unacceptably high mortality.

Patients admitted to larger hospitals were shown to be less likely to die following surgery, strengthening the case for the closure of smaller units, which the Government has postponed.

Death rates in planned vascular surgery varied from fewer than one in 50 in some hospitals to more than one in 10 in others, according to data collected by the Guardian from surgeons at 116 hospital trusts.

More than 5,000 vascular operations are carried out each year, most of which are planned.

The death rate at Scarborough Hospital in Yorkshire was among the highest, with 29 per cent of patients admitted for planned vascular surgery having died in the three-year period from 2006 to 2008. The national average was just over 4 per cent.

The hospital has now stopped offering the procedure.

Other hospital trusts where the death rates following planned surgery were high included Gateshead, on 12.9 per cent and Hull on 9 per cent and Leeds on 7.1per cent.

Gateshead and Hull blamed a high number of difficult cases, while Leeds pointed out that it has brought its death rates steadily down over recent years.

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