A new report from The King’s Fund has found persistent and widespread variations across England in patients’ chances of undergoing surgery for common medical conditions.

This suggests that many patients are not being given surgery they need and that some may be undergoing operations they do not benefit from.

Even after allowing for legitimate factors that affect rates of surgery between areas, such as differences in need, significant variations were found between primary care trusts (PCTs) in the rates of common operations. Researchers found that, for example:

• in 2009/10, rates of patient admissions for routine operations such as hip and knee replacement varied by as much as 400 per cent, between the highest and lowest PCTs
• rates of coronary artery bypass grafts varied from 34 per 100,000 in Westminster PCT to 197 per 100,000 in Berkshire PCT
• surgery rates for cataract replacement – one of the most commonly performed operations in the NHS – varied by 300 per cent between some PCTs.

Some variations also seem to disproportionately affect people in more deprived PCTs. Researchers found that patients from more deprived areas were less likely to have hip replacements – an operation with a strong evidence base for being effective – compared to patients from more affluent areas.

To download a copy of the report, please click here.

To read the original article please go to http://www.kingsfund.org.uk/press/press_releases/healthcare_variation.html

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