On 10 March 2020 the Health Quality & Safety Commission will bring together world leaders in thinking about transparency from New Zealand, the UK and Australia. 

We’ll discuss the scandals, principles and history driving the transparency agenda, alongside some of the nuances of transparency in practice – how has it been done elsewhere and how can it be done intelligently and thoughtfully in New Zealand? How do we give the public what they want while driving quality improvement and increasing patient safety?

In the UK and the US, publication of the outcomes of individual surgeons is now widespread, with variable results and huge outcry, including calls for the UK scheme in particular to be abandoned. Some specialties show improved outcomes associated with public reporting but many protest that the process is driving risk averse behaviour, gaming and negatively affects the training of young doctors. Across the world and in medical literature the debate about how to 'do' transparency rages on.

Since the ground-breaking publication of the paper 'Better data' by the Medical Council of New Zealand in 2015, and the Ombudsman’s 2016 ruling that outcomes must be published by 2021, New Zealand has grappled with how to be more transparent.

This Open Forum brings together world leaders in thinking about transparency, to debate the issues and find a way forward.