We must co-operate to fix broken system

The doctors’ reaction

Consultants’ concerns given to the Paterson Inquiry by The Federation of Independent Practitioner Organisations (FIPO), which had a board member on the investigation’s clinical panel, led to many of the subsequent report’s recommendations. Here, FIPO gives its detailed reaction to Independent Practitioner Today.

Patient information about doctors

Some patients felt pressured to have surgery due to an alleged urgency

The Bishop of Norwich’s report recommends that information about individual consultants should be available. 

A Consultant Information Sharing System is being developed jointly by the Independent Hospitals Provider Network (IHPN) and the NHS, and FIPO has been asked to advise.

Information should be published about the number and types of procedures performed by doctors in their whole practice across the NHS and the private sector. 

FIPO endorses this not just for patient information, but also to reduce the number of places to which doctors would need to submit data. 

The Private Healthcare Information Network (PHIN) has been mandated by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) to record the numbers of procedures performed.  

But we say numbers alone are not a measure of the quality of care or the likelihood that an individual patient will have a successful personal outcome. 

It is important that the individual consultant’s privacy is respected and there is independent medical oversight.