Audit of trauma management in Scotland
Scottish Trauma Audit Group

About this release

This release by Public Health Scotland (PHS) is the eleventh report by the Scottish Trauma Audit Group (STAG) since 2011. Compliance with Scottish Trauma Network (STN) key performance indicators (KPIs), mortality and patient reported outcome measures (PROMs) are reported along with a comprehensive summary of injuries and the patient journey for both adults and paediatrics.

Main points

After reviewing over 99% of emergency department attendances for inclusion, STAG report on 8,368 adult and 229 paediatric patients in this report.

Chart showing the percentage of patients reporting moderate to extreme problems with mobility at in hospital and after a period of six months.

Close

Moderate to extreme problems reported with mobility by patients in hospital and at six months

Moderate to extreme problems with mobility reported by patients reduced at six months and the latest timeframe (2022/2023) showed the lowest problems reported.

Patient outcome

• True length of stay showed a median stay of 9 days for adults and 5 days for paediatrics.
• 7% of all patients died in hospital, rising to 20% of patients suffering major trauma. Case-mix adjusted mortality for Scotland has increased but not significantly compared to 2022.
• Patients who reported "lower severe disability", meaning they are dependent on others for care, reduced from 7% in 2018/2021 to 3% in 2022/2023 six months after their injury.
• 79% of patients employed at the time of their injury returned to work by six month in 2023, a rise from 67% in 2022.

Patients aged 16 years and over (adult)

• 18% of adult patients were classified as having major trauma (n=1533).
• The biggest proportional rise in patients with severe trauma was in the 65 years and over.
• The median age has risen from 55 to 69 years between 2013 and 2023 with an increase of two years since 2022.
• 47% of patients 65 years and over assessed using the clinical frailty score were frail and 17% were mildly frail.
• 76% of injuries were caused by falls, rising to 90% for patients 65 years and over.

Patients aged 0–15 years (paediatric)

• 20% of paediatric patients were classified as having major trauma (n=45).
• Moving vehicle incidents and falls account for 35% and 45% of all injuries respectively.
• 41% of paediatrics patients were brought to hospital by parents or carers transport (self) in comparison to 10% of adults.

Background

STAG’s aim is to improve the quality of care, patient experience, and outcomes of severely injured patients through measuring compliance against Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to support local quality improvement.

Severe injury is categorised as major, moderate, or minor using the Injury Severity Score (Baker et al, 1974). To be included in STAG an injured patient has to be in hospital for at least three days, be admitted to critical care or die in hospital. There are many more patients with an injury admitted to Scottish hospitals which are reported in the PHS  Unintentional injuries report 

Full details of the KPIs and STAG inclusion criteria can be found by on the STAG website.

Further information

The next release of this publication will be 26 August 2025.