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Following GP surgery ratings, MyNHS goes live with surgeons’ performance ratings (19 November 2014)

Date: 19/11/2014
Duncan Lewis, Legal News Solicitors, Following GP surgery ratings, MyNHS goes live with surgeons’ performance ratings

Figures from the Care Quality Commission (CQC) have recently revealed that in many areas NHS patients are struggling to book GP appointments – and ratings for GP surgeries are falling.

The CQC has identified 864 GP surgeries as being “of concern”, with as many as one in six out of 8,000 GP practices in England “failing” to provide safe care to patients.
Following the publication of “Ofsted” style ratings for GP surgeries, the NHS is now to publish performance data for 5,000 surgeons operating in England.

BBC News reports that patients will in the future also be able to access information about their surgeon using the MyNHS website – with data about mortality rates of individual surgeons.

MyNHS is due to be launched on Wednesday (19/11/14) – and will enable patients and health professionals to compare different NHS services, including data on individual NHS surgeons, statistics on local hospital performances and data on mental health services, social care and public health.

However, some surgeons say that the information provided will be too crude to give an accurate picture of how good a surgeon is – and vital data will be omitted from the information.

Failings at Stafford Hospital have led to calls for greater transparency and accountability to patients.

The government response to the inquiry into what happened at Stafford Hospital was published on 19 November 2013 – and the MyNHS website launch is timed to reflect the government’s aim to introduce more transparency into the NHS after the scandal at Stafford.

Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt said:

“Transparency is about patient outcomes, not process targets. It uses the power of a learning culture and of peer review, not blame.”

A spokesman for the Health Quality Improvement Partnership (HQIP) said that NHS patients will be able to find out about their surgeon by simply looking up their surgeon’s name on the MyNHS website, which is designed to be more patient-friendly than other NHS websites.

Data on clinical specialties such as head and neck surgery will also be available to NHS patients for the first time – and these will be rolled out over the coming months, with information on neurosurgery and gastrointestinal surgery due to be published in December.

President of the Federation of Surgical Specialty Associations, Professor John MacFie, warned, however:

“The publication of individual surgeons' performance data is crude and can be misleading – and does not include essential information, such as duration of hospital stay and returns to theatre.”

Prof said that mortality rates for surgeons should only be published after concerns about a surgeon had been raised.
“In reality, very few deaths can be attributed to surgical error alone – and this data only attracts attention away from institutional failings,” Prof MacFie added.

Gill Humphrey from the Royal College of Surgeons Patient Liaison Group said, however:

“Patients can be active participants in their care and use consultant outcomes information to help have an informed conversation with their surgeon.”

uncan Lewis Personal Injury Lawyers – GP Negligence Claims & medical Negligence Claims

Duncan Lewis personal injury lawyers can advise NHS patients who have suffered injury as a result of GP negligence or medical negligence on how to make a no win no fee compensation claim.

Personal injury claimants have three years from the date of injury or diagnosis in which to make a GP Negligence Claim or
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For expert legal advice on no win no fee GP Negligence Claims or Medical Negligence Claims – including compensation for surgical errors – call Duncan Lewis personal injury lawyers on 020 7923 4020.

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