Limiting operations to high volume teams has wide implications

Four out of 10 consultant firms would no longer be able to carry out at least one of 12 common elective procedures if the NHS moved to a system where only firms that carried out a high volume of specific operations were allowed to perform that particular operation.

Because it is widely believed that a higher volume of work results in better quality, organisations representing clinical specialists have begun to set minimum volume thresholds for their members, and quality assurance organisations often stipulate that providers reach certain volume requirements.

But now researchers …