The National Hip Fracture Database report on 2021: Improving understanding

The National Hip Fracture Database (NHFD) has published its latest report. Based on data from England and Wales, the report encompasses both 2020 and 2021 data and presents how current care ‘since COVID-19’ compares with the baseline of 2019 ‘before COVID-19’. The report found that services have generally succeeded in getting patients out of bed by the day after surgery (81% in both 2019 and 2021) and then returning them to their original residence (71% in 2019 and 70% in 2021). Other key findings include:

• The provision of orthogeriatric assessment and screening for/prevention of postoperative delirium both temporarily deteriorated, in parallel with successive waves of the pandemic, but have since returned to baseline
• There has been a more progressive and persistent deterioration in the promptness with which patients receive surgery, and the extent to which the operation is consistent with the recommendations of NICE (down from 74% in 2019 to 71% in 2021).

The report notes that the National Hip Fracture Database is no longer an annual audit of services but has developed into an online quality improvement (QI) platform. It states that most metrics and KPIs will not vary significantly from month to month and, as such, recommends that hip fracture governance meetings should review their performance on a quarterly basis, using intervening monthly meetings to establish and monitor the impact of local QI initiatives. Read the full report: You can read the report by clicking on the link below. Stay up-to-date: For notifications of future reports from HQIP, sign up to our mailing list.