THE mortality rates for operations performed by individual surgeons at Notts hospitals have been revealed for the first time.
It is part of a project that will eventually publish the performance for surgeons across the NHS undertaking nine different procedures.
The first discipline to be covered is vascular surgery, which involves the repair of major blood vessels.
The information was put on the NHS Choices website yesterday.
Operations include the elective – or planned – treatment of abdominal aortic aneurysms.
This is a life-threatening condition where a bulge forms in the main artery – the aorta – leading from the heart.
If the bulge bursts the patient will die. The condition most commonly occurs in those aged 65 and over.
The average mortality rate for patients following life-saving vascular surgery across the NHS was 2.2 per cent, measured over the last five years.
Overall the Nottingham University Hospitals Trust, which runs the QMC and City Hospital had a mortality rate of 1.9 per cent in the same period.
The Sherwood Forest Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust – which runs King's Mill and Newark Hospitals – had a mortality rate, of 14.3 per cent.
The mortality rate for one surgeon, Irfan Akhtar, at Sherwood Forest Hospitals, was 22 per cent, after performing nine elective operations to repair aortic aneurysm.
Overall, 28 operations were performed at Sherwood Forest Hospitals with a mortality rate of 14.3 per cent.
The outcome of operations is influenced by the age and frailty of the patients.
In the 2013 Report on Surgical Outcomes, published by the NHS, it is stated: "Mortality rates for individual surgeons differ from the national average because of random variation – some are slightly higher and some lower.
"All surgeon outcomes were within the expected range of these differences."
Dr Nabeel Ali, medical director at the Sherwood Forest Hospitals Trust said: "These results are historical and neither of the mortality rates you refer to fall outside of the 95 per cent confidence intervals as is clearly explained in the Royal College of Surgeons' report. The apparently high mortality rates quoted reflect the small number of patients operated upon, all of whom had open aortic aneurysm repairs which are known to carry a higher mortality rate.
"Furthermore, we no longer perform major vascular surgical procedures at this trust. Aortic aneurysm repairs are performed by a group of surgeons based at Nottingham University Hospitals."
At the QMC and City Hospital, 325 operations were performed and the mortality rate was 1.9 per cent.
Here, the operations were a mix of open repairs and endo-vascular procedures, which is much less invasive.
One surgeon, Bruce Braithwaite, performed 53 operations with no deaths.
Dr Stephen Fowlie, medical director at the Nottingham University Hospitals Trust, said: "The trust supports the publication of outcomes of operations by our surgeons.
"The information will help patients make decisions, and help us provide better services. Outcomes for vascular surgery at this trust are better than the national average for the unit. Our consultant teams regularly and carefully monitor outcomes, agreeing changes in practice in the unit if these are necessary to ensure consistent best practice and strong patient outcomes."
Sir Bruce Keogh, national medical director of NHS England, said: "We know from our experience with heart surgery that putting this information into the public domain can help drive up standards.
"That means more patients surviving operations and there is no greater prize than that."
