KEY POINTS:
The country's top health watchdog says private hospitals are no guarantee of "gold star" treatment.
Health and Disability Commissioner Ron Paterson said the "safety net is variable" in private hospitals and there was a misconception that they were better than public facilities.
"People get great care in public
hospitals and great care in private hospitals. But things can go wrong in both."
Private surgical centres, such as MercyAscot, have no obligation to report serious problems, such as hospital-acquired infection, unless the patient dies.
Public hospitals will next year have to report surgical complications suffered by patients and Paterson wants the change extended to private hospitals.
"The focus at the moment is on public hospitals," said Paterson.
"Whatever requirements to record and report were to come out for public hospitals - why wouldn't we expect the same for private hospitals?"
New Zealand Private Surgical Hospital Association president Michael Woodhouse said his members were open to the changes.
"We started off wondering whether we would be compelled to comply but we're well past that. We believe this... should happen in the interest of patient safety."
He stopped short of saying private hospitals would commit to public reporting of hospital-acquired infections or other adverse events, because raw data could be misinterpreted.
"My sector relies heavily on reputation built up over 70 or 80 years," said Woodhouse, the chief executive of Mercy Hospital in Dunedin.
"We need to make sure they're not damaged without good reason. We're cautious about disclosure but supportive at the same time.
"I can't say we're absolutely committed to it yet. We don't have enough information."
The new rules are based on a surveillance system used by hospitals in New South Wales.
They will allow the Ministry of Health to compare infection numbers and deaths between public hospitals for the first time.
International studies show that 5 to 10 per cent of patients become infected in hospital and approximately 85 per cent of those cases are unavoidable.
The new campaign would have a three-pronged approach to improve patient safety:
- A national hand hygiene campaign.
- A national surveillance system of procedural and surgical site infections.
- More efforts to prevent catheter-related bloodstream infections.
The changes come four years after Parliament's health committee called for a national surveillance programme on hospital-acquired infections. That followed an Auditor-General's report which suggested 39 ways to prevent hospital-acquired infections after an investigation found at least 11 people died from them in 2003.
Paterson has long called for greater public reporting in hospitals and welcomed the planned changes.
"But we need to be sensible," he said. "We don't want to report every single rash."
