Less than half of high risk patients receive good care

09/12/2011

Less than half of "high risk" surgical patients receive good care in UK hospitals, a damning investigation has revealed.

 

The National Confidential Enquiry into Patient Outcome and Death charity analysed data from more than 19,000 patients in 300 British hospitals.

 

Researchers discovered the treatment of 43 per cent of cases was judged to be poor or inadequate with just 48 per cent receiving good care.

 

There was insufficient data with the remaining nine per cent to make a proper assessment.

 

Experts also claim many high risk patients did not understand the extent of the risks of death or serious complications they faced when they gave consent to the operation.

 

The data showed only 22 per cent of high risk patients were looked after in a critical care unit following surgery while the remainder were sent to wards with a lower level of care.

 

They reviewed the cases of 829 high-risk patients, who account for about one in ten surgical procedures and are considered to have the highest chance of death as a result of their operation.

 

While about one in every 100 of all patients can be expected to die following surgery, high risk patients have a 10 to 15 per cent chance of death and 79 per cent of all deaths recorded in the study were in high-risk patients.

 

Report co-author Dr George Findlay, NCEPOD clinical co-ordinator and intensive care consultant, claims pre and post-operative care in the UK is in a poor state across the board.

 

He said: "There appears to be a serious lack of awareness of the degree of mortality risk to patients, and we have to ask if the Health Service really does appreciate the level of risk that surgical patients face?

 

"If we don't identify the risks to patients, then how can we provide the best pre and   postoperative care?"

 

Dr Alex Goodwin, a consultant in anaesthesia and intensive care, called for a robust system of risk identification and assessment introduced to the NHS.

 

He said: "It is essential to improve the availability of critical care services for these patients, if we are to deliver appropriate post-operative care.

 

"We must give greater consideration to how critical care is used in the management of high risk patients, and hospitals should provide adequate resources to ensure there are enough critical care beds."