Hospital death rate has fallen by more than 9% since 2014

The death rate for hospital patients across Scotland has fallen by more than 9% in four years, new figures show.

The hospital standardised mortality ratio (HSMR) is down 9.2% between January to March 2014 and the same period this year.

The Scottish Patient Safety Programme aims to reduce hospital mortality by 10% by the end of the 2018.

From the 29 hospitals included in the figures ,22 reduced H SM R since January to March 2014. For 11 of these the reduction is more than the 10% target.

These are Ayr, Crosshouse, Dumfries and Galloway, Forth Valley, Inverclyde, Hairmyres, Monklands, Wishaw, Balfour, Western Isles Hospital and Queen Elizabeth University Hospital combined with Gartnavel.

The ratio is based on all acute inpatient and day case patients admitted to hospital who died within 30 days of admission. It is adjusted to account for some of the factors known to affect the underlying risk of death.

The Scottish HSMR for January to March 2018 is 0.94, meaning there were 6% fewer deaths in the period than predicted, the same as the previous three months.

No hospitals had a significantly higher ratio in this period than the national average. The Western General in Edinburgh had a significantly lower ratio at 0.76.