England hospitals to list avoidable deaths number

Britain's Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt leaves the Cabinet Office after a meeting in London October 16, 2014.[Photo/Agencies]

LONDON - England is to publish the number of avoidable deaths in hospitals, Britain's Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt said Thursday.

A new investigation branch into patient safety, modelled on the agency that investigates air accidents, will also be created.

In a keynote speech to the Kings Fund in London on Thursday, Hunt said his five-year 21st century blueprint for the NHS was prompted by horror stories when things had gone drastically wrong in hospitals.

Hunt said those stories were "a total betrayal of what the NHS stood for, not least a betrayal of the staff who worked in those hospitals."

"None of them joined the NHS to be associated with poor care --

and yet they found themselves trapped in a huge bureaucracy where too often the price of speaking out was to be bullied, harassed and sometimes hounded from their jobs," said Hunt.

Hunt said Britain's National Health Service needed a profound culture change putting power into the hands of the millions of patients who use the NHS every day.

He said that by next March, England will publish avoidable deaths by hospital trusts and, with the help of the King's Fund, publish ratings on the overall quality of care provided to different patient groups in every local health economy.

On avoidable deaths, Hunt said there were around 800 every single month, adding "that is 800 human beings who have not been treated with dignity, care and respect -- with catastrophic consequences."

Hunt also announced the need for a proper 7-day NHS service to ensure patients are as safe at weekends as they are during the week. This would be achieved, he added, by removing an "opt out" clause for weekend working for newly qualified consultant doctors.

"Around 6,000 people lose their lives every year because we do not have a proper 7-day service in hospitals," said Hunt.

Hunt said the NHS will become the world's safest and largest learning organisation through the establishment of a new body, NHS Improvement, describing it as the world's largest learning organisation

"NHS Improvement will host a new Independent Patient Safety Investigation Service -- modelled on the air accident investigation branch used by the airline industry," said Hunt.

He announced an international buddying program with five NHS trusts partnered with Virginia Mason in Seattle, "perhaps the safest hospital in the world".

"We will not stop there: if we want to be the best we must learn from the best, and I look forward to developing further international partnerships over the months ahead," he added.