Hip mortality rates ‘getting better’ at L&D

It claimed units at the L&D and Watford General gave “consistent cause for concern.”

But a hospital spokesman said they had recognised the death rate was higher than expected early last year. The Board of Directors immediately launched a programme which was already achieving significant improvements.

Medical director Dr Mark Patten said: “The Trust had made excellent progess and has one of the best improvement rates in the country for fractured neck of femur.”

This includes on-time surgery with 77 percent of patients having operations within 36 hours, compared to 71 percent nationally, and specialist assessment where 96 percent of cases at the L&D are routinely assessed by an ortho-geriatrician while nationally the figure is only 47 percent.

In July the Care Quality Commission acknowledged that the Trust had “identifed the need to improve care for patients with a fractured neck of femur and that considerable progress has been made in addressing this issue.”

Every year more than 60,000 elderly patients are admitted to wards in England with hip fractures. Of these, some 5,00 die within a month.

At the best hospitals only two percent die within 30 days but at the worst this rises to 13 percent.

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