A wide variation occurs in the benefits reported by patients for four procedures covered by patient reported outcome data—hip and knee replacements, groin hernia surgery, and varicose vein surgery—depending on where in England the surgery was done, show results from the second year the data have been collected.1

The results of the Patient Reported Outcome Measures (PROMs) for 2010-11 are published by the Health and Social Care Information Centre. They show, for example, that while 80.4% of patients having a hip replacement at Barking, Havering, and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS trust in Essex showed a benefit when measured by the EQ-5D scoring system, at Shepton Mallet NHS Treatment Centre in Somerset 96.4% did so. The national average was 86.9%.

The “average adjusted health gain” measured by EQ-5D for hip replacements was 0.264 at Barking, and 0.494 at Shepton Mallet, against a …