KEY POINTS:
Surgeons are lobbying the Government to fund work to try to reduce fatal errors in the operating theatre.
About 1200 patient deaths are associated with surgery each year. Sixty to 120 deaths - from the time of admission through to 30 days after surgery - are thought to be preventable.
"With 5 to 10 per cent ... it is thought ... something could have been done that could have altered the outcome," said Professor Guy Madden, chairman of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons' surgical mortality audit.
The college wants New Zealand to set up national audits of its operating toll, which have been established in Scotland and Australia. Across the Tasman, the audit is on the way to becoming a national tool for improving surgery, having started in Western Australia about four years ago.
Professor Madden could not estimate how many deaths the Australian audit had prevented.
College council member Professor Errol Maguire said if Queensland had been auditing before the scandal surrounding "Dr Death" - surgeon Jayant Patel, whose dubious American surgical history was not initially picked up and who was later linked to 87 deaths in the state - his failings would have been identified sooner.
Professor Madden estimated the audit would cost the New Zealand Government up to $500,000 a year. It would involve a national database of surgical deaths. Reporting of deaths would be voluntary. Each death reported would be considered by a committee of independent surgeons.
Dr Cathy Ferguson, chairwoman of the college's NZ national board, said Health Minister Pete Hodgson was interested in the audit idea when approached in March and wanted more information. "He's quite keen on the quality and safety issues."
Dr Ferguson said most surgical mortality audits in New Zealand now were restricted to the hospital or department in which the death occurred, which meant comparisons could not be made with practices elsewhere.
Auckland surgeon and former college president Anne Kolbe said recording deaths, comparing surgeons' practices and reporting findings was a potent way of changing behaviour.
Professor Madden said surgeons were horrified when things went wrong. They needed to know what changes they could make to avoid recurrences. "What the latest ... research tells us is that when there is an adverse event it is rarely as a result of one person. It is usually a team failure and an audit will pick that up."
