Worse Health Outcomes for Seniors Who Wait Longer for Hip Surgery: Study

TORONTO (CP) – A new report finds that nearly 25,000 seniors were admitted to hospital in Canada last year with a broken hip.

The Canadian Institute for Health Information looked at how quickly people in different parts of the country received surgery to repair the damage in 2005-2006.

The study found two-thirds of hip fracture patients had surgery on the day they were admitted or the next day, but some waited longer.

Eight per cent of seniors admitted to Canadian hospitals outside Quebec spent four or more days in hospital before having surgery.

Those in Prince Edward Island, British Columbia and Nova Scotia were more likely to have surgery quickly, while patients in Manitoba and Saskatchewan were behind the national average.

The study of health data found those who had to wait longer than the next day for surgery were 22 per cent more likely to die in hospital within 30 days of admission.

Overall, though, the study found that hospitalization rates for hip fractures were down 13 per cent over five years.