Under a new scheme aimed at improving transparency in the NHS, consultants face the publication of data on how their patients fared after treatment to help patients choose where to go for treatment.
Following the Telegraph's disclosure that doctors were being given the chance to opt out of the league tables Jeremy Hunt, the health secretary, announced last week that those who do so could be named publicly.
Now further details have emerged which indicate that those who attempt to hide information from patients under data protection laws could be listed online next week.
A report in the Health Service Journal claims that consultants who block the publication of their data will be named on a public website, most likely the Health care Quality Improvement Partnership, from 28 June.
Those who are named will have the chance to explain their decision by selecting one of a number of predefined reasons, such as concerns about the validity of the data or a moral objection.
A spokesman for HQIP told the journal: "The interest of the public in this pioneering work is clear and so to ensure patients are kept fully informed of progress regarding it, a list of consultants who have not consented will be published online."
The initial wave of data will cover ten surgical specialisms, but the transparency scheme will later be rolled out across the NHS.
More than 97 per cent of consultants covered by the first data release are believed to have consented, but last week there were still 92 individuals who had not agreed.
Professor Norman Williams, President of the Royal College of Surgeons, said: "We have been clear from the outset that no surgeon should use the law to hide the results of their surgery from the public.
"There are a small number of surgeons who have genuine reasons to withhold agreement, such as the quality of their data, and they must be open about those reasons."
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/10135027/Surgeons-to-be-named-and-shamed-for-blocking-data-from-next-week.html
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