Audit of trauma management in Scotland
Reporting on 2022

About this release

This release by Public Health Scotland (PHS) is the tenth 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 7,531 adult and 215 paediatric patients in this report.

Chart shows the change in employment status for patients who were aged <65 years old and in employment prior to their injury.

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Change in employment status for patients aged <65 years old who were in employment prior to their injury

• 69% of patients, in employment prior to their injury return to work in some capacity. Data are on patients who returned a PROMs survey six months after their injury (n=214).

Patient outcome

• 7% of all patients died in hospital, rising to 18% of patients suffering major trauma. Case-mix adjusted mortality for Scotland has improved this year.
• Severe disability has reduced from 27.9% of patients in 2018/2021 to 22.3% of patients in 2021/2022 (includes patients who returned a PROMs survey, n=570). Although the change in the proportion of severe scores is not a significant drop, patient recovery performance would appear to have improved.

Patients aged 16 years and over (adult)

• 19% of adult patients are classified as having major trauma (n=1,458).
• 76% of injuries are caused by falls, rising to 90% for patients 65 years and over.
• The median age has risen from 60 to 67 years between 2018 and 2022 with an increase of two years since 2021.
• There was a significant rise (49% to 58%) in major trauma patients, conveyed by the Scottish Ambulance Service, being taken directly to a major trauma centre. This is the aim of the STN pre-hospital major trauma triage tool.

Patients aged 0–15 years (paediatric)

• 21% of paediatric patients are classified as having major trauma (n=45).
• 58% of major trauma patients are male.
• 70% of injuries were non-intentional with 17% caused during sporting activities.

Background

STAG is part of the Scottish National Audit Programme in PHS. STAG’s aim is to improve the quality of care, patient experience, and outcomes of patients with severe trauma through measuring compliance against standards of care to support local quality improvement. Full details of the KPIs can be found by on the STAG website.

Further information

The next release of this publication will be in summer 2024.