- Experts analysed the chance of dying within 30 days of being admitted for an emergency operation
- Discovered five-fold variation in death rates across 156 NHS hospital trusts
- Crucially, the hospitals with the worst survival records had far fewer nurses, doctors and surgeons
- Researchers linked a 7 per cent difference in death rates to staffing alone
Hundreds of patients die every year after emergency surgery because there are not enough nurses to care for them, research suggests. A five-year investigation into death rates in English NHS hospitals found those with the highest staffing levels had the lowest death rates.
Experts who analysed the chance of dying within 30 days of being admitted for an emergency operation discovered a five-fold variation in death rates across 156 NHS hospital trusts – from 1.6 per cent at the best trust to 8 per cent at the worst. Crucially, the hospitals with the worst survival records had far fewer nurses, doctors and surgeons.
When the hospital trusts were divided into the best, middle and worst groups in terms of the number of nurses and doctors per patient – researchers linked a 7 per cent difference in death rates to staffing alone. This was despite the fact that patients at the best hospitals – many of which have specialist or trauma units – were often more seriously ill before surgery and more likely to suffer complications following operations.
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