Shropshire NHS trust misses its death rate drop target
The number of people dying at Shropshire's two main hospitals has fallen over the past two years – but not by as much as NHS bosses had hoped.
In 2010/11, The Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust recorded 1,770 patients dying in hospital or within 30 days of being discharged. Trust bosses wanted to cut that number by 350 over the following two years.
But latest figures show that the trust missed its target and instead recorded 302 fewer deaths.
At yesterday's trust board meeting at the Princess Royal Hospital in Telford, bosses were told the failure to meet the target did not mean standards were falling.
Dr Edwin Borman, the trust's medical director, said: "These figures need to be taken against a background of almost 110,000 admissions each year. When you look at the percentage of deaths, the good news is that the trust has seen a reduction, and maintenance of that reduction, over the past two years.
"There has been a fall in mortality of patients in hospital, but an increase in the number of patients who died within 30 days of discharge.
"It may be that their hospital treatment is no longer able to help, and it may be a decision which the patients and families feel is best for them, but it may be something else as well.
"The figures also don't take into account patients having palliative (end of life) care.
"We've also seen an increase in elderly and frail patients and emergency admissions, and an increase in deaths due to emergency admissions."
According to the trust's figures, there were 1,591 deaths in 2011/12 and 1,647 in 2012/13. A total of 175 people died at the Princess Royal and Royal Shrewsbury hospitals last month – an increase of 34 on March 2011.
Peter Herring, the trust's chief executive, said: "I think we need to be cautious about setting death targets because over the last two years the number of admissions has risen.
"Also we have seen a general trend as far more elderly people present to the hospitals.
"We need to be careful about setting targets or suggesting that we failed the target because it needs to be set against these facts.
"We also need to remember that each of these deaths is a person and not just a statistic."
