Twenty facts you should know about our NHS hospitals

The recent roll-out of hospital guidelines, operating checklists and incident reporting systems have still not created the safety culture that NHS patients would expect. The latest analysis from Dr Foster's Hospital Guide 2009 reveals the wide variation in safety standards among our hospitals, with patients often at risk from clinical errors and poor management.

  1. Twelve trusts significantly underperformed on basic safety measures
  2. Nationally the HSMR (mortality ratio) decreased by seven per cent
  3. Thirty-two trusts had significantly low death rates
  4. Twenty-seven trusts had significantly high death rates
  5. Mid-Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust improved its mortality ratio by 34 per cent over the three years to 2008/9
  6. Basildon & Thurrock University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust had a mortality ratio 31 per cent above the national average
  7. One hundred per cent of trusts had someone responsible for patient safety at board level
  8. Thirty-nine per cent of hospitals did not investigate all unexpected deaths or cases of serious harm that occurred on their wards
  9. Only 37 per cent of trusts routinely asked patients and carers for opinions about their end-of-life care programme
  10. Seven trusts did not respond quickly enough to national safety alerts
  11. Eighty-two incidents of 'wrong site' surgery were recorded (operating on the wrong part of the body)
  12. One in five trusts did not check patients admitted through A&E for MRSA
  13. Missing patients' notes caused the cancellation of 478 operations
  14. Just over 5,000 people admitted with 'low risk' conditions died in hospital
  15. Over 800 people under the age of 65 years died after being admitted with 'low risk' conditions
  16. Over 8,000 extra operations could have been performed if hospitals had treated all hip fractures on time
  17. Strokes cost the NHS £375.5m
  18. Ten trusts scanned fewer than 40 per cent of stroke patients within 24 hours
  19. If you had a heart attack in south-central England or the east Midlands, you were more likely to receive the preferred treatment of primary angioplasty than if you lived in the east or the north-west of England
  20. The NHS spent over £1.5bn on people being readmitted within a month

General reference:

  1. All data from Dr Foster's Hospital Guide 2009