29.09.11
Surgery patients at risk
Poor care, limited access and delays to treatment are putting surgery patients’ lives at risk, a report from the Royal College of Surgeons (RCS) suggests. They argue that patients should have better access to facilities like scans and operating theatres, with more critical care provided after an operation.
The RCS includes a number of recommendations in its report, and suggests that surgeons, NHS managers and ambulance services must all work together to achieve real change.
Figures show that about 170,000 patients undergo emergency abdominal operations each year; and 100,000 of these will develop complications. 25,000 of these patients will die, and among the elderly, deaths can climb to 40%.
Iain Anderson, the author of the report and a consultant general surgeon at Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust, said: “Every single emergency patient who comes through the door of an NHS hospital should have an individual risk assessment, diagnosis, treatment plan and post-operative care plan prioritised according to need.
“Instead we have some of the NHS's sickest patients languishing on inappropriate wards, treated by juniors and with no plan in place to deal promptly with unexpected complications.
“These tend to be the patients who end up in intensive care units for lengthy periods of time or, sadly, too sick to be helped.”
In response to the report, Michelle Mitchell, charity director of Age UK said: “This is just more evidence that the NHS is not responding to the needs of older people who constitute the bulk of its patients.
“It’s shocking that some of the UK’s sickest and most vulnerable men and women are not receiving the emergency surgical and post operative care they need – care which can mean the difference between life and death. Improved care and treatment and routine risk assessments should be the right of every vulnerable patient not just those lucky enough to be in the right hospital.”
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