Letter

Surgical mortality

Media attack

BMJ 2007; 335 doi: 10.1136/bmj.39374.370463.BE (Published 25 October 2007)
Cite this as: BMJ 2007;335:839.1

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  1. Stephen Westaby, consultant cardiac surgeon1,
  2. Nicholas Archer, consultant paediatric cardiologist2,
  3. Neil Wilson, consultant paediatric cardiologist2
  1. 1Department of Cardiac Surgery, Oxford Radcliffe Hospital NHS Trust, Oxford OX3 9DU
  2. 2Department of Paediatric Cardiology, John Radcliffe Hospital, Headington, Oxford OX3 9DU
  1. swestaby{at}ahf.org.uk

    We are concerned that publishing non-risk stratified cardiac surgical mortality statistics may have adverse effects on surgical teams, bereaved parents, and people with children to be treated at targeted centres.1 We support data collection to maintain clinical standards, but hospital episode statistics are unreliable for measuring mortality and unsuitable for comparison between centres. …

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