(Press-News.org) Tuesday 25 February – A reduction in the post-code lottery for hip replacement surgery has been achieved in Scotland without recourse to the private sector, according to new research published in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine. Using NHS Scotland data, researchers at the Centre for Primary Care and Public Health at Queen Mary University of London with colleagues from the University of Edinburgh and Lothian University Hospitals NHS Trust, show that access to hip replacement increased and geographical inequalities improved across all geographical health boards since 2003 when waiting time initiatives in Scotland were introduced. A key factor was the Scottish government's decision to buy the privately owned Golden Jubilee National Hospital in Clydebank and run it as a major NHS centre for orthopaedics and a national resource dedicated to reducing waiting times in key elective specialties.
The authors suggest further research is required to assess how these reductions in inequality by geography relate to differing levels of need for treatment.
One of the researchers, Professor Allyson Pollock, said: "Scotland has managed to improve and increase access to treatment for all patients by expanding capacity within the NHS, unlike England which has placed increasing reliance on poor value contracts with the private sector to deliver elective treatments." She added: "While England has decided to go down the private route there is growing concern south of the border about rationing and denial of surgery".
The researchers point to the difficulty of doing a similar study for England to examine the effect of using the private sector in waiting time initiatives due to the numerous organisational changes that have abolished health authority boundaries and poor quality data returns from the private sector.
INFORMATION:
The study was funded by the Chief Scientist Office in Scotland.
Notes to editors
NHS Scotland reduces the postcode lottery for hip arthroplasty: an ecological study of the impact of waiting time initiatives (DOI: 10.1177/0141076814523950) will be published by the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine at 00:05hrs (UK time) on Tuesday 25 February 2014.
For further information or a copy of the paper please contact:
Rosalind Dewar
Media Office
Royal Society of Medicine
DL +44 (0) 1580 764713
M +44 (0) 7785 182732
media@rsm.ac.uk
The JRSM is the flagship journal of the Royal Society of Medicine and is published by SAGE. It has full editorial independence from the RSM. It has been published continuously since 1809. Its Editor is Dr Kamran Abbasi.
SAGE is a leading international publisher of journals, books, and electronic media for academic, educational, and professional markets. Since 1965, SAGE has helped inform and educate a global community of scholars, practitioners, researchers, and students spanning a wide range of subject areas including business, humanities, social sciences, and science, technology, and medicine. An independent company, SAGE has principal offices in Los Angeles, London, New Delhi, Singapore and Washington DC. http://www.sagepublications.com
NHS Scotland reduces post-code lottery for hip replacement surgery
2014-02-25
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