Every few years we unearth another hospital scandal in which we discover, all too late, that many patients have needlessly died. On the face of it there is no common theme to these failures: the bug clostridium dificille at Stoke Mandeville, possibly similar infections at Maidstone & Tunbridge Wells; emergency admissions at Mid-Staffordshire, and possibly poor hygiene at Basildon & Thurrock. But, as The Sun points out today, it seems that the Department of Health was warned in the strongest terms about flaws in the healthcare oversight mechanism.
It is astounding that there is no system of performance improvement in the NHS. But suppose there was. If we could, say, spot increased mortality at any hospital on a monthly basis we could prevent temporary problems turning into scandals. But, there is already a way to do that. The Hospital Standardised Mortality Ratio (HSMR) was developed here in the UK. It accounts for different risk factors so that hospitals undertaking complex operations, or dealing with critical patients, are not painted in a poor light.
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