Summary

Description

Measures of survival are an important measure of the quality of care provided by hospitals. Florence Nightingale was one of the first people to identify the importance of measuring survival rates and in the 1860s, she highlighted the variation in survival rates for hospitals across London. More recently, the Bristol Royal Infirmary Inquiry highlighted the importance of openness about clinical performance, and concluded that “patients should be able to gain access to information about the relative performance of a hospital, or a particular service or consultant unit”. Many clinicians routinely monitor the survival rates in their services, and use them to improve care. NHS Choices is the first national government website to publish survival rates.