THE ROYAL Berkshire NHS Foundation Trust has been named third best in improvement on bedsores amid national struggle.
As hospitals around the UK continue to grapple with unsafe levels of bed shortages, figures released by Opera Beds show that bed sores have cost the NHS nearly £35 million over the last two years.
While roughly 39% of all NHS Trusts in England have avoided any reports of patients developing bed sores over the last year, there have still been 3,265 cases of acquired pressure sores during hospital stays across the country during the same time.
More than 87% of all NHS Trusts have seen a reduction in bed sore cases between 2022-23 and 2023-24, meaning 39% of Trusts in England have avoided any reports of patients developing bed sores over the last year.
Liverpool Women’s NHS Foundation Trust and University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust saw the biggest decrease in patients developing pressure sores during their hospital stay.
Doncaster and Bassetlaw Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust have seen triple the number of patients developing bed sores during hospital stays since last year.
Rotherham Doncaster And South Humber NHS Foundation Trust has seen the highest proportion, at 3.58% of patients.
The NHS Trust offers a range of services for older people, however– a demographic more at risk of developing a pressure ulcer due to lowered mobility.
Lincolnshire Community Health Services NHS Trust ranked in second, at 1.19% of patients, followed by George Eliot Hospital NHS Trust.
Liverpool Women’s NHS Foundation Trust and University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust both saw a 100% decrease in numbers of patients affected, each reducing from 10 to 0 in 2023-2024.
The Royal Berks saw the biggest gross drop, from 140 in 2022-2023 to just 15 in 2023-2024– a drop of just under 90%, placing it in third for proportional decrease.
A Freedom of Information request was used to find the number of hospital admissions and patients who developed pressure sores during their hospital stay for 2022-23 and 2023-24.
This request was sent to NHS England and then broken down by NHS Trust.
Data wasn’t provided for any trusts with fewer than eight cases, although figures for these trusts are included in overall totals.
The percentage of patients who developed pressure sores during their hospital stay was calculated by dividing the number of patients who developed pressure sores by the total number of hospital admissions.
Opera then subtracted the number of patients who developed pressure sores during their hospital stay in 2023-24 by the 2022-23 figure before dividing this by the 2022-23 total to find the change in patients developing pressure sores during hospital stays for each NHS Trust.
More information about the data compiled by Opera Beds, as well as about the company itself, is available via: operabeds.com
