Thursday 13 June 2013

Pick your own consultant

University Hospital of South Manchester Trust is the first to release individual consultant data starting with cardiologists and cardiac surgeons.

http://m.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-22878990

This is good but it must be introduced with care.

Single organ specialists and procedure-based practices might be more easily measured. Tackling the multiple morbidities in general medicine and geriatrics will be more of a challenge.

Whilst transparency is valuable the need to correct the figures for the different case mix and clinical risks will require ongoing research.
With suitable measurements will patients be able to make sensible choices and pick their own consultant?

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