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Friday, 19 April 2024

Wednesday, 19 July 2006 08:56

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Heart surgery survival rates are revealed for hospitals in Scotland

A website, which was put together by the Healthcare Commission and the Society for Cardiothoracic Surgery, allows patients having heart surgery in Scotland to compare the performance of hospitals and see which units and surgeons have the best survival rates.

New data published yesterday includes information from the four cardiac units in Scotland, alongside statistics for all 37 units in Britain as a whole.

The data showed that all four Scottish units fell below the British average for heart bypass surgery survival at 98.3 per cent, although Edinburgh Royal Infirmary and Aberdeen Royal Infirmary came close at 98.2 per cent.

But the units scored well for aortic valve replacements, with only Glasgow Royal Infirmary falling slightly below the British average of 97.7 per cent survival.

The organisations said the hope was that patients would be able to use the data when considering where they would have their surgery and discuss the information with their GP.

But they stressed that the website, which can be found at heartsurgery.healthcarecommission.org.uk could not tell patients their own chances of survival.