Fragility fractures – State of the nation Wales report 2022 (FFFAP, 9 March 2023)

Summary

This report is the Falls and Fragility Fractures Audit Programme's (FFFAP's) State of the Nation Report 2022 for Wales. It examines how the care of inpatient falls and fragility fractures has changed since 2020, highlighting what the audit reveals about the quality of patient care and the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The report used three sources of data and concludes with a number of recommendations around the care of people with hip fracture, preventing inpatient falls, and preventing future fractures.

Content

Key findings by data source

National Hip Fracture Database (NHFD)

The number of hip fractures changed very little during the pandemic, so this is an ideal marker of the pandemic’s impact on the care of frail and older people and shows how successive waves of Covid-19 affected outcomes (mobility, return home, length of stay and mortality) in Wales.

National Audit of Inpatient Falls (NAIF)

There were approximately 12,500 inpatient falls in 2021. These led to:

• over 195 hip fractures
• loss of confidence and slower recovery
• distress to families and staff
• litigation against health boards.

Fracture Liaison Service Database (FLS-DB)

Based on 1,956 fragility fractures in 2020 and 2,033 fragility fractures in 2021, the number receiving FLS assessment within 12 weeks was similar in 2020 and 2021 (64% and 65% respectively).