Hospital death shocker

Local people are more likely to die early of every major illness, and experts the Lancashire Evening Telegraph talked to believe poverty is partly to blame. AMY BINNS reports

PATIENTS admitted to hospital in East Lancashire are more likely to die within a month of treatment than elsewhere in England.

Performance indicators show local people are less likely to survive after being admitted to hospital for surgery or after suffering hip fractures or heart attacks.

And people living in the Burnley NHS Trust region are even more likely to die within a month of treatment than in the rest of East Lancashire.

Public health expert Stephen Morton, of the East Lancashire Health Authority, said the high hospital death rate was down to the bad general health of local people, due to poor housing and diet and high levels of smoking. He said: "When people have chest and heart diseases, they are more likely to get complications during surgery.

"Elderly people in East Lancashire are more likely to have lung and heart diseases, but if they come in with a hip fracture, there is no choice but to operate quickly."

Janice Atkinson, of Blackburn, Hyndburn and Ribble Valley NHS Trust, said: "The higher death rate is related to the fact that patients in East Lancashire tend to be more ill when they come to hospital."

East Lancashire hospitals also put more patients through "inappropriate" surgery such as ear grommets for children and procedures to try and stop women's heavy periods, coming 98th out of 99 authorities in a league table.

Dr Morton said: "We have actually moved up a place. We have improved a great deal, but all the other health authorities have improved too, so they are still ahead of us."

Dr Morton also believes ear grommets, although often used inappropriately, are more likely to be needed by East Lancashire children. Ear grommets are needed for long-standing ear infections, often caused by parents who smoke and damp houses, which are both more common in the area.