Study says deaths could be avoided (From The Northern Echo)

Study says deaths could be avoided

6:10am Monday 8th February 2010

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ACCIDENT victims are dying unnecessarily at some of the region’s hospitals, according to a study that condemned the lack of care at night and at weekends.

Up to 600 people a year could be saved if “unacceptable variation” in the treatment of people injured on the road or in falls was tackled, the National Audit Office (NAO) found.

Its report raised the alarm over huge disparities in survival rates at casualty departments – ranging from five unexpected survivors per 100 patients to eight unexpected deaths.

In the North-East and North Yorkshire, more patients than expected are dying at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Gateshead, (2.9 per 100) and York Hospital (1.2 per 100).

But there are unanticipated survivors at The James Cook University Hospital, Middlesbrough (4.4 per 100), Newcastle General Hospital (4.4 per 100) and Sunderland Royal Hospital (1.8 per 100).

Many other hospitals do not provide data to the Trauma Audit and Research Network, a research foundation set up to improve accident and emergency services.

Every year, 10,000 people die of injuries in England and Wales, the leading cause of death among children and young adults, with many more thousands left disabled.

The NAO investigation found that many die because they suffer accidents and injuries at night or at weekends, when emergency consultants are not at work to provide rapid diagnosis and treatment.

Only one hospital in the country – The John Radcliffe, in Oxford – had specialist consultants on duty round the clock, it said.

Furthermore, the picture had not “significantly improved”

over the past 20 years, despite numerous reports and investment.

Edward Leigh, the Conservative chairman of the Commons public accounts committee, said: “For more than 20 years, almost nothing has been done to remedy the lamentable provision of care for people suffering serious injuries.

“Your chances of avoiding death or disability can turn on when your accident happens and to which hospital the ambulance takes you.”

Experts said major trauma centres need 16 to 18 consultants to provide round-theclock cover, yet the average hospital has only four.

The Government said it was introducing regional trauma networks to take patients by ambulance to a specialised centre, where neurosurgeons and other experts would be available at all times.

In the North-East, the NAO report said an informal network was already in operation.

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