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Death rates 'significantly worse' than expected at New Cross hospital

Mortality rates at New Cross Hospital are 'significantly worse' than expected, it can be revealed today.

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The trust which runs the hospital has the highest mortality rate in the Black Country and Staffordshire, with the death rate above the expected figure.

Bosses said they had 'no concerns' about the hospital's mortality rate.

National health chiefs have expressed concerns about pneumonia deaths. And four tuberculosis deaths are being scrutinised as the trust looks at the process of how it reviews deaths.

Hospitals use a score of 100 as the 'expected score' of their Hospital Standardised Mortality Ratio. However New Cross posted a score of 106.9, making it 'significantly worse' than expected in terms of performance.

The figures relate for the time period from April 2013 to February 2014.

Chiefs today said they were confident that new figures to be made available next month could potentially make the results 'within expected' for the financial year.

The Hospital Standardised Mortality Ratio score is a way of comparing hospital death rates, as hospitals across the country vary in terms of population size, age profile, level of poverty and even the range of treatments offered, for example high-risk surgical procedures.

Simply comparing the amount of people that have died would not represent an accurate comparison.

The trust's medical director, Dr Jonathan Odum, stressed that the HSMR score is an estimate and not a verified value.

And he said that if March's figures were taken into account then the score would fall within an acceptable level.

"At this moment in time we have no concerns about mortality," he said.

"We scrutinise mortality on a monthly basis.

"The estimated rebased HSMR for the same period is 105.1 which is within expected limits.

"Therefore, at the present time the Trust's HSMR is better than expected and following rebase is likely to be within expected limits."

A score of 105.1 would still put the trust higher than other hospitals in the area.

The Dudley Group NHS Foundation Trust scored 102.8, Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust scored 97.5 and Walsall registered 96.1.

The Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust was the lowest in the area, with 94.6.

Earlier this year a whistleblower at New Cross made claims that she had been brought in to 'fix' mortality rates – a claim strenuously denied by bosses.

National health chiefs are currently looking into those claims, as well as at how New Cross deals with its whistleblowers.

Among the types of New Cross deaths being looked at in a mortality review are tuberculosis - with four deaths in particular being observed - as well as pneumonia.

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