Higher death rate NHS trusts named

Three of the trusts have had higher than expected rates for the last two years, according to figures from the Health and Social Care Information Centre.

The report covers all deaths of patients who were admitted to non-specialist acute trusts in England and either died while in hospital or within 30 days of discharge.

It comes after a report from the Care Quality Commission last week revealed 44 trusts out of 161 were highest risk, including having higher than expected death rates across their hospitals.

In total, the CQC looked at 150 indicators of how trusts were doing, including incidents involving patient safety, whistleblowing staff and patient satisfaction with care.

The CQC put England’s trusts into six bands, with band 1 being the highest risk and band 6 the lowest. It said the banding was not a final judgment on the trusts but would help inspectors work out where they needed to focus their attention.

The data showed seven trusts had higher than expected death rates, including several placed in band 1 by the CQC and some labelled as much lower risk by the regulator.

They are Basildon and Thurrock University Hospitals Foundation Trust, Aintree University Hospital Foundation Trust and Northampton General Hospital Trust, all placed in band 1 by the CQC.

Blackpool Teaching Hospitals Foundation Trust and Colchester Hospital University Foundation Trust are also on the list (both were placed in band 2 by the CQC), alongside Mid Cheshire Hospitals Foundation Trust (placed in band 3) and Warrington and Halton Hospitals Foundation Trust (placed in band 5).

The new report covers the period from April 2012 to March 2013.

The three trusts whose death rates were higher than expected in both this report and the previous year’s one were Colchester Hospital University Foundation Trust, Aintree University Hospital Foundation Trust and Blackpool Teaching Hospitals Foundation Trust.

The latest data is based on the summary hospital-level mortality indicator (SHMI), which is the ratio between the actual number of patients who die following treatment at the trust and the number that would be expected to die on the basis of average England figures.

It showed 17 trusts had a lower than expected death rates, while 118 had rates that were as expected.

Some 73.3 per cent of the deaths occurred in hospital and 26.7 per cent occurred outside hospital within 30 days of discharge.

Aintree said it had already set up an group to carry out a case note review of every patient that dies in the hospital.

A spokesman said: “Although our standard hospital mortality indicator (SHMI) rating is high, our hospital standardised mortality ratio (HSMR) is low. Two independent external reviews found that we are largely doing the right things and identified many examples of good patient care. However, one report recommended that we implement a more structured and co-ordinated approach to reducing mortality and this is why we have established an avoidable mortality reduction group.”

It said this group “consists of senior clinicians who will review whether everything possible was done to help patients”. The spokesman added: “Based on that evidence, and national guidelines, they will be able to recommend changes in policies and the way patients are treated in the future.”

Blackpool Teaching Hospitals said it was improving its score on mortality indicators.

Chief executive Gary Doherty said: “The latest national figures show that we have successfully reduced our SHMI figures.

“This has been achieved through a comprehensive plan to improve and invest in the quality of our services, which was positively reflected in the recent review of the trust by Sir Bruce Keogh.

“We are on track to deliver our agreed action plans and our local calculations show that we have continued to improve.

“Our September SHMI data is very encouraging with an in-month figure of 91, which is our lowest single month SHMI figure since our calculations began four years ago.

“We expect our yearly rolling SHMI figure to reduce to within the expected range by April 2014.’’

Colchester made no comment as this article went to press.