BMA Attacks Tables on Hospital Death Rates ; HEALTH Government Attempts to Raise Standards by Comparing Performance Judged to Be Failing as Concern Grows over Quality of Medical Care

Jeremy Laurance Health Editor, The Independent (London, England)

DEATH-RATE tables for hospitals, published annually by the Government, are misleading patients and unhelpful to doctors, the British Medical Association said yesterday.

The tables, published in England for the first time last year, are "too complicated" for the public and "insufficiently specific" to show individual doctors where they are going wrong, the BMA said in a report. However, it accepted that for health authorities and NHS trusts they "can probably help identify areas for further exploration".

Ministers have publicly accepted that the data on which the tables are based is crude but have argued that the best way of improving it, and encouraging …

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Publication information: Article title: BMA Attacks Tables on Hospital Death Rates ; HEALTH Government Attempts to Raise Standards by Comparing Performance Judged to Be Failing as Concern Grows over Quality of Medical Care. Contributors: Jeremy Laurance Health Editor - Author. Newspaper title: The Independent (London, England). Publication date: March 1, 2000. Page number: 12. © 2009 The Independent - London. Provided by ProQuest LLC. All Rights Reserved.

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