SHOCKING figures revealing a Bournemouth stroke doctor to have some of the worst death statistics in the country are ‘alarming’, according to an MP.

Patients treated by Dynesh Rittoo, a vascular surgeon at Royal Bournemouth and Christchurch Trust, were five times more likely to die in comparison to the national average after undergoing a carotid endarterectomy – a procedure used to reduce the likelihood of a stroke.

The data, released as part of an NHS ‘transparency’ campaign, show Mr Rittoo carried out 93 of these procedures during the three-year period scrutinised and had a risk-adjusted mortality rate of 10.4 per cent.

The national average mortality rate for the procedure was two per cent. Christopher Lee, another vascular surgeon at the trust, carried out the same procedure 23 times and had a risk-adjusted mortality rate of zero per cent, while another Bournemouth specialist, Lasantha Wijesinghe, carried out the procedure 65 times with a risk-adjusted mortality rate of 1.4 per cent.

Conor Burns, MP for Bournemouth West, told the Daily Echo that Mr Rittoo’s statistics were ‘alarming’ and hoped the trust’s response to such figures was ‘constant and not reactive’.

The regional manager of Healthwatch Dorset, Martyn Webster, said the revelations were ‘concerning’. He added: “Publishing these sorts of figures is one good way of making sure that standards continue to improve.”

A spokesman for the Bournemouth Hospital said Mr Rittoo, who graduated from the University of Manchester in 1991 and also works at the private BMI Harbour Hospital in Poole, had ‘nothing to say’ about the figures.

A statement issued by the trust’s medical director, Basil Fozard, said the results of a new audit showed Mr Rittoo’s statistics had improved.

He said: “I regularly review audit data for individual surgeons and believe that the publication of their outcomes is extremely important in continuing to improve and maintain standards for our patients.

“In 2012, in response to the 2011/12 data, we changed the pathway for patients having an endarterectomy procedure so they are managed post-operatively on the High Dependency Unit. A further audit for 2013/14 has already been carried out and Mr Dynesh Rittoo is no longer an outlier.”

Two other surgeons at the top of the NHS figures for mortality were Jonathan Hyde, a heart surgeon at Royal Sussex County Hospital, who had risk-adjusted hospital mortality rate of 6.63 per cent over three years, and Jeff Garner, a colorectal surgeon at Rotherham NHS Foundation trust, with a mortality rate of 14 per cent for surgery over 18 months.