Surgeons refusing to publish data will be named by NHS

NHS officials will publish the names of some surgeons who decide not to publish their details alongside those of their colleagues, starting today.

The tables are central to Government plans for a more transparent health service and aim to show patients how well consultants across England perform and “shine a light on variation and unacceptable practice”.

Data for cardiac and vascular surgery will be published on the NHS Choices website today and information concerning surgeons in five other specialities – bariatric, interventional cardiology, orthopaedic, endocrine and thyroid, and urology – will follow within the next week.

The additional three specialities – head and neck, bowel cancer, and upper gastrointestinal (GI) – will publish data in the autumn.

The tables will allow patients to see the number of times a consultant has done a procedure, their mortality rates and whether or not they are performing within the “expected range”.

The Royal College of Surgeons (RCS) said the move was a “world first”. Initially data will be available across 3,500 medics from 10 specialities but it is understood it will be rolled out to incorporate all surgical consultants.

The names of the surgeons who are not publishing their data will be published on the NHS Choices website along with each surgeon’s reasons for refusing to take part, officials said.

An RCS spokeswoman said “fewer than 30” medics did not give consent but none of them were deemed to be outliers – where their results were significantly different from others.

Medical director for NHS England Prof Sir Bruce Keogh said: “This is a major cultural change in the way the NHS works and we expect this to take time to bed in.

“A small number of surgeons have so far not consented to their data being published but, as is our experience with the publication of cardiac data, we expect this to change over time with more consultants agreeing to their data being published.

“Now I expect hospitals and surgeons to use this information to judge the outcomes their patients are getting.”

A spokesman for the Federation of Surgical Speciality Associations cautioned: “It is important that people reading the data fully understand its limitation, and do not misinterpret it or draw conclusions that may be misleading and potentially harmful to patient confidence and clinical care.”

Sir Bruce added: “It is really important that people understand that somebody could be an outlier because they take on difficult cases. It doesn’t necessarily mean there is a performance issue.

“Where someone is an outlier, it is important that expert colleagues review the data so that the issues are properly understood by all.”

Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt said: “We need to see a revolution in transparency in the NHS – publishing this data will not only drive better care for patients, it could literally save lives.”