Published 16 July 2008, doi:10.1136/bmj.a844
Cite this as: BMJ 2008;337:a844

News

Chief medical officer outlines how more data collection can make surgery safer

Adrian O’Dowd

1 Margate

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

New ways to make surgery safer in England by monitoring and measuring performance have been proposed by the chief medical officer.

In his annual report, published this week, Liam Donaldson said that errors in surgery had to be reduced, alongside a culture change.

Professor Donaldson made several major announcements in the report, including:

  • A "zero tolerance" policy on racism against doctors
  • A campaign on teenage health issues that would include a national summit and the introduction of a zero legal limit on the amount of blood alcohol for 17 to 20 year old drivers
  • National research to investigate the sharp rise in the incidence of oesophageal cancer in England (over the past 20 years the rate of new cases has risen by 86% in men and by 40% in women), and
  • Possible vaccines for Clostridium difficile and meticillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus infections in 10 years’ time.

Although surgery in England . . . [Full text of this article]


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