BMJ  2005;330:1389-1390 (11 June), doi:10.1136/bmj.330.7504.1389-c

Letter

Scottish model for surgical mortality used in Australasia

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

EDITOR—Two days before the BMJ published Baxter's editorial expressing doubts about whether the Scottish Audit of Surgical Mortality was applicable elsewhere,^{1 2} the Western Australian Audit of Surgical Mortality published its second annual report.³ The audit was based on the Scottish audit and started in 2001. It has already shown clear changes in local practice despite the different surgical environment. For example, unlike the NHS most surgical operations in Australia are performed in the private sector.

Current participation (96% of surgeons submitted 60% of all deaths) is not as complete as in Scotland because, unlike in Scotland, there is not an established culture of regional surgical audit. A particular problem at the outset was the highly aggressive medical legal environment in Australia. Qualified privilege was an essential prerequisite.

The principal area of public and media interest was the degree of surgeons' participation. The clear expectation is that surgeons participate . . . [Full text of this article]

Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital, Nedlands, WA 6009, Australia rjaitken@cyllene.uwa.edu.au

CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    StumbleUpon    Technorati    What's this?

Relevant Articles

Monitoring surgical mortality

Nancy N Baxter
BMJ 2005 330: 1098-1099. [Extract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Building a framework for trust: critical event analysis of deaths in surgical care

A M Thompson and P A Stonebridge
BMJ 2005 330: 1139-1142. [Extract] [Full Text] [PDF]

This article has been cited by other articles:

• Branthwaite, M A (2005). Time for change. BMJ 331: 681-683 [Full text]  

Online poll

Find out more >>