THE publication of surgeon's performance data will drive up standards and help patients make informed decisions, the medical director of York Hospital has said.

Dr Alastair Turnbull, of York Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, said he welcomed the NHS publication of performance rates as a move towards transparency.

Using the My NHS website patients can search for information, including mortality rates for almost 5,000 individuals across ten specialisms.

It is designed to help patients and professionals to compare the performance of different NHS services, including consultants.

Dr Turnbull said: “I and the Trust very strongly support the publication of outcome data and I really welcome this level of transparency. I know it’s challenging to some surgeons and some surgical bodies have raised concerns… but this initiative over transparency has been driven by surgeons and they should be given praise for doing that.

“People here who come to our hospitals have got some real assurance about the safety and about the quality of the care they will get.

“It’s designed to be used by patients and it’s intended to make it possible for patients to understand who will be doing their operations, what their outcomes are and locally it does that – it tells you what our results are across a whole range of specialities. For all those we are part of, the data is there.”

At the York Hospital Trust there are more than 300 consultants, about half of which work in surgical disciplines. Patients don’t tend to request particular consultants but this could be a possibility if such a request was made following a discussion with their GP, Dr Turnbull said.

However, there has been criticism the published material is so basic as to be misleading. Dr Turnbull suggested patients use the York Hospital website to access further and more in depth performance data.

He said about the My NHS website: “It’s good but it is limited. If you look at death rates, that’s potentially misleading. We really need to look at comorbidities. Did Surgeon A chose to operate on the same group of patients as surgeon B or were they a surgeon who, for one reason or another, was taking on a group of patient who were more ill so the anticipated death rate may be higher?”

Dr Turnbull said surgeons working for the trust had previously been required to publish outcome data and he would “certainly be concerned” if any declined to.

He said publication of results would improve standards – much in the way the publication of Clostridium difficile (C. difficile) data has driven down infection rates - in part, due to an inherent sense of competition among consultants.

Within the York Trust surgeons are closely monitored and there will be “a few cases a year” where concerns may be raised and sometimes restriction of practice and certain procedures put in place.

“Occasionally it will come to my attention that a practitioners outcomes are a cause for concern and I have to make a decision and that decision is based first and foremost on the need to protect patients,” Dr Turnbull said.

He added: “We’ve changed the climate in the NHS to a better transparency. I think we’re the first anywhere in the world to do this, it’s pretty much unique. There are risks, it could add stress to surgeons, it could potentially alter decision making but provided that’s done in a way that is shared with patients I’m very supportive of it.”

To access consultant outcomes on the York Hospital website, visit http://www.yorkhospitals.nhs.uk/about_us/our_performance/consultant_outcomes_publication/ or to go to the MY NHS page, visit http://www.nhs.uk/service-search/performance/Consultants#view-the-data