On 6 February, in response to a request from the Prime Minister, Sir Bruce Keogh (the Medical Director) announced an investigation into hospitals that are persistent outliers on mortality indicators. Sir Bruce identified an initial list of five organisations that had been outliers for two years on the Summary Hospital-level Mortality Indicator (SHMI), and said that he would announce further hospitals shortly. The first five hospital Trusts confirmed are:

• Colchester Hospital University NHS Foundation Trust
• Tameside Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
• Blackpool Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
• Basildon and Thurrock University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
• East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust

Today, Sir Bruce is announcing the final list of hospitals that will be looked at as part of his investigation. These are the following nine organisations that have been outliers for two years on the Hospital Standardised Mortality Ratio (HSMR):

• North Cumbria University Hospitals NHS Trust
• United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust
• George Eliot Hospital NHS Trust
• Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust
• Northern Lincolnshire and Goole Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
• The Dudley Group NHS Foundation Trust
• Sherwood Forest Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
• Medway NHS Foundation Trust
• Burton Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

Sir Bruce said: “These hospitals are already working closely with a range of regulators. If there were concerns that services were unsafe the regulators should have intervened.”

“The purpose of my investigation is to assure patients, public and Parliament that these hospitals understand why they have a high mortality and have all the support they need to improve. This will be a thorough and rigorous process, involving patients, clinicians, regulators and local organisations.”

Review into the quality of care and treatment provided by 14 hospital trusts in England – Terms of Reference
(this document is no longer available here but can be found on the National Archives website)

If you want to submit any information or raise any concerns you may have about any of the 14 hospital trusts covered by this review you can do so on the NHS Choices website.

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