MOSCOW (Sputnik), Anastasia Levchenko – Burton Hospitals NHS (National Health Service) Foundation Trust, a UK-based regional organization which controls two hospitals in the Burton-on-Trent area which introduced an emergency regime to counter high mortality rates, has made progress on eradicating avoidable deaths, despite a recent report published by Dr Foster, a healthcare data analysis company which benchmarks performance in the industry, the press officer of the Trust said Monday.
On Sunday, the report by Dr Foster revealed that 11 hospital trusts that were known for having high mortality rates and that introduced emergency measures in 2013 have reduced mortality rates by almost 9.5 percent. According to the report called "Is Special Measures Working", there has been neither a downward, nor an upward trend in mortality indicators at Burton Trust hospitals.
However, the Trust states there has been an improvement that was not indicated in the report.
Moreover, the Trust "has put a number of measures in place as part of our commitment to improved patient care," the statement added.
The problem of high rates of avoidable deaths in hospitals in parts of the UK (primarily England and Wales) was also raised in an interview with UK Secretary of State for Health Jeremy Hunt by The Telegraph on Saturday. Hunt promised to adopt a package of measures to decrease mortality rates, which would include an annual review of as many as 2,000 deaths at the hospitals across the country.
Burton Hospitals Foundation Trust is among 14 hospital trusts that had the highest mortality rates for two years prior to 2013, when an investigation by Professor Sir Bruce Keogh, the National Health Service's National Medical Director, started. Special measures, such as changing the leadership and sending teams of external experts, were introduced in 11 out of 14 trusts. According to the NHS website, the next Keogh Mortality Review is due on March 6.
