By: Jeremy Laurance, Health Editor, The Independent
Friday, 11 July 2008
One hundred and fifty years after Florence Nightingale identified the importance of measuring survival rates, NHS trusts throughout England are publishing details of deaths following four common operations.
The move signals a shift from the delivery of care – measured in waiting times – to its outcome – measured in death rates – as called for in last week’s NHS Review by Lord Darzi as a means of driving up standards.
It is the first time any government has exposed the mortality rates of surgical teams in different hospitals to public scrutiny. But, while Britain’s most famous nurse marked her patients “dead”, “relieved” or “unrelieved”, her descendants are still struggling to find an accurate way of measuring the effects of treatment.







