Row over surgeons' mortality rates as those who withheld data are named Due to the way the data was presented, however, it was difficult to identify the surgeon responsible. The average mortality rate for cardiac surgery between April 2009 and March 2012 was 2.63 per cent. The data was for 279 consultants and covered 101,071 operations. Katherine Murphy, chief executive of the Patients Association, said unless it was presented in a meaningful way, releasing the data was little more than a "gesture." She said: "The whole purpose of this release of information was to make the NHS more transparent and easier for patients to look and make a choice. It is no good just producing data as a gesture if it is not meaningful for the patient if they can't see how they are performing compared to others. The public want to be able to look at the number of operations a doctor has done, the outcomes they have had and how that compares to the average. It has to be easy to understand so the public can trust it and use it to help them make the choices they need to. Officials at NHS England, which has been coordinating the release of data, also said it hoped for improvements in the way the statistics were presented. Yesterday they named six vascular surgeons who decided not to publish their details alongside their colleagues in the first wave of releases. In total there are 20 surgeons who have chosen to withhold their mortality rate data, despite calls for greater transparency in the NHS. All of those who withheld information are to be named but are believed to have mortality rates within the expected ranges of surgeons in their field. They are all thought to have had concerns about the quality of the data being released and methods used to adjust the statistics to take into account risk factors such as the patient's health and age. However, the performance league tables have been hailed as a "world first" for making hospital surgeons more accountable. Manmohan Madan, a consultant vascular surgeon at North Manchester General Hospital, also refused for the same reasons. Patrick Kent, a consultant vascular and general surgeon at St James University Hospital in Leeds, Robert Lonsdale, a consultant vascular surgeon at Northern General Hospital in Sheffield, and Professor Peter McCollum, chair in vascular surgery at Hull York Medical School and a consultant vascular surgeon at Hull Royal Infirmary, all said they did not agree with the publication of the data. None of the surgeons would comment further on their reasons for withholding data when contacted by the Daily Telegraph. However, it is believed that some are concerned that joint operations performed alongside colleagues were not to be included in the data and so would not give an accurate picture of their outcomes. Professor Ben Bridgewater, outcomes publication director of the Healthcare Quality Improvement Partnership who led the collection of the data, said: "I encouraged everyone to give consent, but some people didn't want to. He added that he expected improvements in the way the data was presented to help the public access it. Mortality data from cardiac surgeons has been collected and released for several years but critics feel it is not easily accessible. He said: " Specialist societies and audits are being encouraged to be innovative in the way that data are presented in this first instance and a number of approaches are being tested to see which methods work best, so that these can be used more consistently in future. However, it is certainly expected that over time, the data will be refined, expanded and there will be consistency in presentation across specialities. This is a big event. We have had a very guarded and closed culture in the NHS. We are now moving towards a different situation where people are more transparent and we know that drives quality overall and facilitates good governance that we haven't really seen in the NHS in the past. Jeremy Taylor, chief executive of National Voices, the national coalition of health and social care charities, added that there needed to be improvement. "The publication of surgeons" data is an important step forward - we need to see more of this kind of transparency across health care. While we wouldn't expect the presentation of the data to be perfect on day one, there is still some way to go in making sure it is all readily understandable and usable by patients and the public.