Hip fracture in the COVID-19 era: what can we say about care and patient outcomes?

Hip fractures remain an important public health issue, being the most common reason for emergency anaesthesia and surgery in older people. Following the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020, hospitals in many countries observed considerable reductions in admissions for acute medical conditions such as stroke and acute myocardial infarction1 2 but not for falls in older adults.3 Nevertheless, the pandemic greatly affected care for patients with hip fractures in the first wave, both directly for those patients who also were infected with COVID-19 before admission and indirectly, as staff were redeployed to deal with COVID-19 admissions and surgical protocols were changed to try to protect both patients and staff from the virus. In the UK, hospitals were also urged to prepare for the anticipated influx of patients with COVID-19 by cancelling non-cancer elective surgery and expediting discharge home or to care...
Source: Quality and Safety in Health Care - Category: Health Management Authors: Tags: COVID-19 Editorials Source Type: research