Radical reorganisation of trauma services reduces risk and saves many lives among severely injured patients

  • Antoinette Edwards (Participant)
  • Omar Bouamra (Participant)
  • Patel, Hiren (Participant)
  • Fiona Lecky (Participant)
  • David Yates (Participant)

Impact: Health and wellbeing

Narrative

Trauma is the UK’s biggest cause of loss of life below age 40. We developed a methodology that showed significant variation in trauma mortality depending on the type of treating hospital and created an economic case for change. This directly led to a radical policy shift and a fundamental reorganisation of NHS services, which has resulted in greatly enhanced care and a 19% reduction in mortality for severely injured patients - NHS England estimates that since 2013 the reorganisation has saved an estimated 400 patient lives each year. We have subsequently undertaken the same process in the Republic of Ireland, with similar impact on mortality risk observed.
Impact date1 Aug 201331 Dec 2020
Category of impactHealth and wellbeing
Impact levelAdoption