Scottish Hip Fracture Audit
Reporting on 2020

About this release

This release by Public Health Scotland (PHS) provides information from the Scottish Hip Fracture Audit (SHFA) on patients with a hip fracture from January 2020 to December 2020.

Main Points

• Slightly more patients (62%) returned to their original residence within 30 days in 2020 (59% in 2019).
• The length of acute orthopaedic stay remained at 9 days in 2020, however total length of hospital stay dropped to an average of 15 days (17 days in 2019).
• The percentage of people who died within 30 days of admission increased in 2020 to 8.6% (7.7% in 2019).

Background

People who suffer from a hip fracture are usually frail and elderly and at risk of complications from surgery and/or the injury. This can be associated with increased length of stay in hospital, admission to care homes, and mortality.

The Scottish Hip Fracture Audit reports on compliance with the Scottish Standards of Care for People with Hip Fractures. The results support the collaborative work between the Scottish Government, PHS and Health Boards to continually drive improvements in care for this group of people.

Data are collected by Local Audit Co-ordinators based in each hospital and submitted to PHS for analysis and report production.

Further Information

The next release of this publication will be August 2022.