03.03.16
Birmingham’s Queen Elizabeth Hospital faces scrutiny over heart surgery death rates
A high death rate in heart operations has prompted a Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspection into the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham.
The Guardian reported today that the hospital received an inspection on 21 and 22 December 2015 after the National Institute for Cardiovascular Outcomes Research (NICOR) alerted the Healthcare Quality Improvement Partnership (HQIP), who in turn alerted the CQC, over the hospital’s high mortality rate.
Between April 2011 and March 2014, the hospital held 1,713 operations with a survival rate – when adjusted for risk factors such as the patient’s age and state of health – of 95.54%, meaning approximately 76 patients died.
University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust, which runs the Queen Elizabeth, now reports the hospital’s heart surgery results to the CQC by midday every Wednesday, and the hospital is also undergoing an independent inspection by the Royal College of Surgeons. The CQC are due to publish a full report soon.
Professor Sir Mike Richards, chief inspector of hospitals at the CQC, said: “Our inspectors found significant concerns particularly with regard to the safety, effectiveness and responsiveness of the service.”
“Following our inspection we have told the trust to take immediate action, with regard to the service and have been monitoring individual patient safety and outcome data on a weekly basis.”
In a statement, the trust said that it had already been taking action to reduce its cardiac surgery mortality rate at the time of the inspection. This included dismissing heart surgeon Ian Wilson, a surgeon with a number of deaths linked to him who is currently facing a General Medical Council disciplinary hearing, and introducing a quality improvement plan (QIP) for cardiac surgery.
It added that the data NICOR used should have included 130 cases successfully treated at The Priory, a private hospital, as part of an NHS initiative.
The statement says: “Our outcomes were already improving at the time we received the NICOR notification (and before HQIP subsequently contacted the CQC) and have continued to improve under the QIP. None of the cardiac surgeons currently working at UHB are outliers for mortality outcomes.
“Patient safety remains our number one priority.”
(Image c. John Chew)