Table 1.

 Prevalence of avoidable deaths

Grade of avoidability*	Definition of grade	2009† (n=1000)	2012/13‡ (n=2400)	Overall (n=3400)
2	Slight evidence of avoidability	28 (2.8)	87 (3.6)	115 (3.4)
3	Possibly avoidable but not very likely, less than 50-50	33 (3.3)	68 (2.8)	101 (3.0)
4	Probably avoidable, more than 50-50	29 (2.9)	45 (1.9)	74 (2.2)
5	Strong evidence of avoidability	20 (2.0)	25 (1.0)	45 (1.3)
6	Definitely avoidable	3 (0.3)	1 (0.0)	4 (0.1)
4-6	>50% likelihood	52 (5.2)	71 (3.0)	123 (3.6)

*Reviewer assessed using Likert scale.

†“Was the patient’s death due to problems in the healthcare or did problems in healthcare contribute to the death?”

‡“In your judgment, is there some evidence that the patient’s death was avoidable if the problem/s in healthcare had not occurred?”