College of Surgeons says no to ‘Transparent Patient Outcomes’ Bill with support from nine surgical specialty societies

MedTech News: Royal Australasian College of Surgeons (RACS) has welcomed the opportunity to provide a submission to Bill sponsored by Senator Stirling Griff in relation to legislative amendments of the Health Insurance Act 1973 in relation to ‘Transparent Patient Outcomes’.

In their submission RACS said “While RACS supports in principle the need for transparency when examining data and surgical procedures, RACS cannot support this Bill as it stands due to other factors which influence the qualitative measure of surgical health registries in Australia.”

This Bill enables the Minister for Health to establish public databases of surgical procedures and patient outcomes, to allow consumers who are considering a particular procedure to make an informed choice about their practitioner.

There is little information in the public domain that allows Australian patients to objectively assess the skills and outcomes of individual practitioners, and the Bill seeks to address this lack of transparency.

The Bill amends the Health Insurance Act 1973 to enable the Minister to make rules to establish and maintain Transparent Patient Outcomes registers that contain data such as the number and type of surgical procedures performed at a facility, and the number and type of procedures performed by a practitioner, surgical revision rates and patient mortality rates for each facility and practitioner, any prosthesis device used, patient demographics, or any other information set out in the rules by the Minister.

RACS said it is concerned with the introduction of this Bill. “Problems which exist to name just a few are; the funding of registries, the lack of risk adjustments, public vs private data, surgical ethics applications with differing state jurisdictions, rural outcomes, and complex procedures. There is reason to believe that if passed, the proposed legislative amendments will have a serious impact on our fellowship and the patients they serve in all regions of Australia.”

RACS consulted with their fellowship within their governance structure including all state and territory committees, the Research, Audit & Academic Surgery (RAAS) Division, the Rural Surgery Section (RSS), and the HPAC.

Joint signatures in support of RACS submission are provided by:

• Dr Guy Henry – President, Australian and New Zealand Association of Paediatric Surgeons
• Dr Jayme Bennetts – President, Australian and New Zealand Society of Cardiac Thoracic Society
• Dr Peter Subramanian – President, Australian and New Zealand Society for Vascular Surgery
• Dr Annette Holian – President, Australian Orthopaedic Association
• Professor Suren Krishnan – President Australian Society of Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery
• Dr Dan Kennedy – President, Australian Society of Plastic Surgeons
• Dr Sally Butchers – President, General Surgeons Australia
• Dr Rodney Allen – President, Neurosurgical Society of Australasia
• Associate Professor Prem Rashid – President, Urological Society of Australia and New Zealand