Retail therapy

摘要

In 1995 18-month-old Joshua Loveday had open-heart surgery at the Bristol Royal Infirmary. He died on the operating table. The surgeon's high death rates had already started to worry colleagues and, on the evening before the operation, one of them tried to persuade him to cancel and refer the child for surgery elsewhere. Joshua's death was the catalyst for an independent public inquiry into the high number of children dying after heart surgery at the infirmary. The inquiry heard evidence that, for at least ten years, death rates had been much higher than at comparable centres: around 35 more children under one had died than if performance had matched the norm.