Brit J Hosp Med
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The transparency of surgical outcomes data and the drive for quality has been highlighted since the public inquiry, led by Professor Ian Kennedy, into children's heart surgery at the Bristol Royal Infirmary. This was formalized in Lord Darzi's 2008 report High Quality Care for All, that proposed the NHS should: 'systematically measure and publish information about the quality of care'. Subsequently the NHS White paper, Equity and Excellence: Liberating the NHS (Department of Health, 2010), set out the ambitions and aims of the NHS and in particular that it should provide: '...a service that offers care that is safe and of the highest quality.'