Ratio of doctors per patient equates with death rates:
This article was originally published in Clinica
Executive Summary
The best predictor of hospital death rates is the number of hospital doctors per bed and general practitioners per head of population, a new English study has found. In both cases, higher ratios were critical determinants of lower death rates, says the study, led by Dr Brian Jarman, emeritus professor of primary health care at London's Imperial College School of Medicine. The study, reported in the British Medical Journal (June 5), considered eight million discharges from National Health Service hospitals. England has one of the lowest numbers of doctors per head of population of the OECD countries, at just 59% of the average.