Hip patients in deadly postcode lottery for care, some twice as likely to die –

Patients with hip fractures face a zip code draw, and some are more than twice as likely to die within a month than others.

More than 70,000 people are admitted to a British hospital each year for hip fractures.

A team from the University of Bristol found that in some hospitals 10% of patients died within 30 days, while in others only 3.7%. Some kept patients indoors for an average of 12 days, others for 42 days.

In some hospitals, the patient had a 4 percent chance of returning, while in others it was around 30 percent.

Hospitals where staff met monthly to discuss patient feedback had a lower risk of dying.

Deborah Alsina MBE from Versus Arthritis said: “Hip fractures mainly affect the elderly… the quality of care is an important indicator that we receive care for the elderly in general. This research shows that it is not.

An NHS spokesperson said it was “constantly monitoring” data on welfare disparities.

Dr. Rita Patel, lead author of the study, said: “It seems likely that teams willing to spend time researching their patients’ experiences will be motivated to improve their service.

‘One of the main factors in patients’ need to return to the hospital seems to stem from communication. In hospitals where rehabilitation staff understand how quickly community services can start supporting a patient after discharge, there has been much less patient readmission.

An estimated 890 additional readmissions each year in England and Wales could be avoided if all hospitals better understand the delays between discharge and initiation of community therapy, the researchers said.

The results of the research will accelerate the development of a new “Toolkit” (photo: stock image with Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall) developed in collaboration with the Royal Osteoporosis Society for hospital administrators and senior physicians.

The results of the study will accelerate the development of a new ‘Toolkit’ developed in collaboration with the Royal Osteoporosis Society for hospital administrators and senior physicians.

Jill Griffin, principal investigator on the project and Clinical Engagement Leader at the Royal Osteoporosis Society, said: “The results of the study provided us with valuable information and showed how we can collaborate with healthcare professionals and hospitals to improve the recovery of patients after surgery for hip fracture.

“The research data has allowed us to formulate recommendations that we will use to create a toolkit for healthcare professionals, and our goal is to significantly improve the quality of care for anyone with a hip fracture.”