Hospital stay figures ‘misleading’ says Southport health chiefs

Jan 17 2008 by Liza Williams, Liverpool Daily Post

A MERSEYSIDE health authority has said a study, into the length of time patients stay at its hospitals after bowel operations, is misleading.

A study released yesterday has found wide variations in the length of hospital stays across NHS trusts for hip operations and also for bowel surgery.

Figures showed patients at Southport and Ormskirk Hospital were waiting more than two weeks longer than in other NHS hospitals.

But the Trust says that the results are disproportionately high due to one hospital patient suffering complications and therefore distorting the figures.

The study showed patients being treated in Southport and Ormskirk spent 27.9 days in hospital on average for bowel surgery, compared to 11.6 days at West Dorset General Hospitals NHS Trust.

But a spokesman for the Merseyside Trust said: “The figure of 27.9 is misleading.

“We have not had many patients during the time period for that particular procedure and one patient stayed in the hospital for a disproportionate amount of time, due to clinical complications.

“If you take that man out of the equation, the average stay is 11.7 days, which is right up there with the best of them.”

The data was based on hospital stays for the year 2006/07 for bowel surgery, and 2005/06 for hip replacements.

There were wide variations throughout the rest of the country, with patients needing a hip replacement in Bristol spending just 4.4 days in hospital on average at the United Bristol Healthcare NHS Trust, compared with West Middlesex University Hospital NHS Trust in South West London, where the average stay was 26 days.