HIGHER than expected death rates have been highlighted at two of the region's hospital trusts. Hull and East Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust, which runs Hull Royal Infirmary and Castle Hill Hospital, had a higher than expected mortality rate in patients with complex illnesses following surgical problems.
Northern Lincolnshire and Goole NHS Foundation Trust, which runs three sites including Goole and District Hospital, was one of 13 trusts that had a high mortality rate in at least two of the four measures used. The problems were highlighted in the latest Dr Foster annual hospital guide.
The guide, from the health statistics firm, showed 16 hospital trusts had higher than expected death rates among patients in hospital, down from 20 the previous year.
Dr Ian Philp, Hull and East Yorkshire's chief medical officer, said health professionals were working to understand the data behind the trust's score in relation to deaths after an operation.
He said: "Initial investigations suggest at least half of the deaths occurred in patients who were undergoing medical procedures rather than actual surgery under anaesthetic and many of these patients were already critically ill.
"We see it as our duty to give the best possible care to our patients, so we will intervene and carry out procedures on patients to give them the best possible chance of survival, even if they are really poorly and their outlook is not overly positive.
"I think this is something that most people would want us to do if it were their relatives or loved one, but this approach clearly does not reflect well when it comes to scoring systems such as these.
"Being rated 'higher than expected' in this area does not mean patients should be worried."
Dr Philp was keen to point out that overall mortality rates continue to fall at the trust and those relating to general surgery are also lower than would be expected.
The trust's ratio score now stands at 92.42, down from 104.34 in 2011-12 and 118.45 in 2010-11 in the Hospital Standardised Mortality Ratio (HSMR).
The report uses four indictors including a standard measure of in-hospital deaths, deaths within 30 days of the patient leaving hospital, deaths after surgery and deaths among people with low-risk conditions who would normally survive.
However, several health bosses have criticised the methods used for the report, including North Lincolnshire and Goole's chief executive Karen Jackson.
She says the report's Summary Hospital-level Mortality Indictor (SHMI) uses a different interpretation compared to official government figures published by the NHS Information Centre.
This resulted in the same score for the year to March 2013 yet places the trust in a different banding. In the most recent official government SHMI, which was published in October and covers the same period, the trust is in the "as expected" band with a score of 111.
However, in Dr Foster's version of the SHMI for the same period of time, the trust's same score of 111 places it in the "higher than expected" band.
Mrs Jackson said: "The trust's Dr Foster scores have improved considerably compared with last year's guide.
"However, I am concerned at Dr Foster's decision to use a different interpretation of the SHMI that is at odds with the official nationally published figures.
"This is very confusing for NHS staff and the public."
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