Death rates higher than predicted

THE number of patients across the area dying in hospital or within a month of being discharged was higher than expected last year.

The mortality rate at Pennine Acute NHS Trust, which runs the Royal Oldham Hospital and three others, was more than 11 a day.

There were 4,074 deaths compared to 3,945 predicted deaths for the year.

All trusts are given a one, two or three ranking for their results, and despite the disparity, Pennine’s result of two shows it is within the “normal“ range.

NHS Information Centre chief executive Tim Straughan warned that the data wasn’t really intended for pateints or the public and is intended as a “smoke alarm”, for trusts to assess their internal performance.

The data compares the number of patients who die following treatment at a trust with the number who would be expected to die, given the characteristics of the patients treated there.

Pennine Acute’s medical director, Dr Sally Bradley, said, “The indicators show that mortality is reducing and as a hospital trust we continue to focus our attention on ensuring our services are safe for our patients.”

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