Surgeons' death rates on internet

Patients can now check the success rate of their heart surgeon before they have an operation at one of the country's biggest hospitals.

In a groundbreaking move, St George's Hospital in Tooting is revealing its death rates for operations such as heart bypass and valve replacement. The data is being published on the internet today.

In 2002 following the Bristol heart scandal - when 35 babies died after surgeons were allowed to continue operating despite poor survival rates - health ministers said hospitals should publish death rates for all cardiac surgeons.

The measures were supposed to come into force by April last year but few hospitals publish the data, amid fears the raw figures could penalise surgeons who take on the toughest cases.

St George's has overcome this. The death rates by operation across the unit are shown compared with the national average. But they also show the "risk adjusted" rates, calculating how many more lives than expected were saved.

? See the charts at www.stgeorges.nhs.uk/cardiac index.asp