BCIS Patient Area

The data are shown both for each operator and also for each PCI hospital. A skilled interventional cardiologist requires a combination of good clinical judgment and technical ability. Skills can only be maintained by performing a procedure regularly. However, there is no definite cut off below which an operator’s ability to perform high quality PCI will be reduced. BCIS recommends a minimum of 75 PCI procedures in a year (but encourages activity of over 150 procedures a year).

The figures presented here are for the consultant responsible for the PCI procedure, but under certain circumstances a lower volume operator may work with a high volume colleague (a ‘buddy’ or ‘mentor’), and that information is not captured in the data presented.

There are several possible reasons why operators maybe recorded with low procedural volumes. It may genuinely reflect their practice. They may have only been appointed as a consultant part way through the year in question (and so only a subset of their cases will be included). They may have suspended their work due to pregnancy, or by taking a sabbatical. In some cases an operator may have retired part way through the data collection period. There may be an error with data submitted, with missing procedures, or missing consultant GMC numbers associated with procedures.

If an operator has worked on multiple sites, then all data from those sites will be ascribed to that one operator. However some private hospitals have not submitted data electronically to NICOR, and these cases will not be included.