Cardiac surgeons call for more doctors to use outcome data to improve care

Much of the NHS is failing to give patients crucial information that would help them make truly informed decisions about their care and where to have it, concludes a report by the cardiac surgeons’ representative body.

Cardiac surgeons have hit out at the rest of the NHS, saying that, outside cardiac surgery, doctors are not providing reliable, independent, and accessible data on outcomes. The government has now announced that an additional £1.2m (€1.4m; $1.9m) will be allocated in the next year for clinical audits in the NHS in England.

The new report by the Society of Cardiothoracic Surgery in Great Britain and Ireland criticises the lack of information given by many doctors. The report, launched today at the …