BOA response to Consultant Outcomes Publication (COP) - My NHS Data release
The BOA strongly supports the publication of surgical outcomes: looking to the future, our patients’ interests are best served by a public overview of unit level performance for a variety of procedures rather than a concentration on individuals.
Appropriate outcome transparency is important: it reinforces public confidence in NHS hospitals and enhances patient safety by supporting surgeons to identify and address any issues.
For many years Trauma and Orthopaedic surgeons have focused on their patient’s outcome to drive continuous improvement in their surgical practice. Joint replacement surgeons do this by submitting their procedures to the National Joint Registry which this year published its 11th annual report. Unit level hip fracture outcomes are published annually by the National Hip Fracture database. Other trauma procedures are captured by the Trauma Audit Research Network.
The importance of these national audits is to enable surgeons to review and reflect on their own outcome data supported by expert peer review and analysis of their practice. This feedback and review mechanism has been in place for a number of years and as a consequence there are currently no orthopaedic outlier joint replacement surgeons for mortality.
Outcome transparency and publication engages surgeons precisely because it is about improving rather than regulating practice. The BOA encourages all orthopaedic surgeons to take part in the review and publication of outcome data. We are actively working with our specialist societies as they develop their own comprehensive range of trauma and orthopaedic audits focused on outcome, quality and improvement.
The BOA has been encouraged by the evident benefits of recording the success of our treatments at an individual patient level. Where the treatment pathway is complex and involves a number of doctors, for example hip fracture, we support the continuing publication of unit level data .
The data is published in a patient-friendly format on My NHS (www.nhs.uk/mynhs), the dedicated transparency area within the NHS Choices website.