This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility:

Researchers from the universities of York, Manchester and Birmingham found that systems for assuring the quality and safety of care in NHS and private hospitals exist within organizations, but they do not work well between organizations.

The report shows that patients rely too much on specialists themselves choosing to share information about their performance or any concerns with the hospitals where they work.

It also states that data sharing between NHS and private hospitals has been hampered by misplaced concerns about GDPR and confidentiality. Hospitals should have a clear legal duty to share any concerns they have about a doctor with any other hospital where that doctor works.

The new research comes six years after an inquiry report prompted by the case of a surgeon who was sentenced to 20 years in prison for performing unapproved and entirely unnecessary operations on hundreds of patients in both NHS and private hospitals in the West Midlands.

The Paterson Inquiry into the case made a series of recommendations for reforms to the systems for assuring the quality and safety of care and protecting patients and the public, which were largely accepted by the government. But the research finds that most of those recommendations have not been implemented.

Karen Bloor, a professor at the University of York's Centre for Health Economics, said, "Our health care system increasingly includes patient care in private as well as NHS hospitals, and many doctors work in both settings.

Source link