East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust exceeds national average in hip care (From Lancashire Telegraph)

East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust exceeds national average in hip care

3:55pm Friday 14th September 2012 in News By Catherine Pye, Health reporter

EAST Lancashire Hospitals are celebrating after scoring highly in the National Hip Fracture Database.

Since its launch in 2007, the database has audited care at 180 hospitals against six standards, including prompt admission and correct assessment.

The East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust (ELHT), which runs hospitals including the Royal Blackburn and Burnley General, has exceeded national averages, and improved on previous year’s performance.

For admissions to an orthopaedic ward within 4 hours, ELHT scored 69 per cent against an average of 52.

For surgery within 48 hours, it scored 88 per cent against an average of 83, pressure sore development was 2.39 per cent against 3.7 per cent, for pre-operative assessment by an orthogeriatrician ELHT scored 49.7 per cent against 43 percent, and there were 97 per cent of patients discharged on bone protection medication against an average of 69 per cent.

Also, 98.91 per cent of patients received a falls assessment prior to dicharge, compared to an average of 92 per cent.

Vinod Shah, consultant orthopaedic surgeon at ELHT, said: “I would like to thank all the staff that have contributed to this fantastic result which clearly shows the dedication of this Trust to providing an excellent service for all our hip fracture patients.

“There is a room for further improvement in some areas and work is still on-going to achieve this particularly in the areas of secondary prevention of fractures through fracture liaison service, further medical input and rehabilitation.”