For immediate release - Tuesday, 31 January 2006
Avoidable hospital admission rates higher in deprived areas
A new study has found that the highest rates of hospitalisation across primary care trusts in London were associated with population profiles and measures of deprivation.
The findings, which are published in the February issue of the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine cast doubt over Government plans to cut avoidable admission rates as outlined in yesterday’s White Paper.
“This study shows that unless the Government directly addresses issues of deprivation, primary care trusts and GPs will be criticized for aspects of healthcare utilization that are not under their direct control,”said lead researcher, Dr Sonia Saxena.
The study analysed data from London’s 31 primary care trusts and examined the association between ill health, material deprivation and hospital admission rates for potentially avoidable admissions. The researchers used age-standardised hospital admission rates for asthma, diabetes, heart failure, hypertension and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
These chronic diseases, which are often demanding of hospital resources, can be managed successfully in primary care settings with early detection and appropriate management.
“We found wide variations in hospital admission rates between the 31 primary care trusts in London for all key chronic diseases studied,”write the researchers.
“Deprivation was associated with increased hospital admission rates for all conditions.
“Although hospital admission for some chronic diseases is potentially avoidable and rates of hospital admission for these conditions are possible indicators of the quality of care, they should be interpreted in conjunction with measures of populations and deprivation,”they write.Whilst the UK Government has introduced a range of initiatives aimed at improving access to primary care and reducing hospital waiting times, this latest evidence shows that without additional resources in deprived areas, out of hospital care initiatives will simply not work.
This latest research is among the largest UK population-based studies undertaken to examine the variation in admission rates for diseases where admission is potentially avoidable.
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‘Association of population and practice factors with potentially avoidable admission rates for chronic diseases in London: a cross Sectional analysis’ by S Saxena, J George, J Barber, J Fitzpatrick and A Majeed, is published in the February issue (Vol. 99) of the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine
JRSM is the flagship journal of the Royal Society of Medicine. It has been published continuously since 1809. Its Editor is Dr Kamran Abbasi.
