Access to care for low trauma hip fractures in South Africa

Early surgery is recommended for hip fractures.

In this study only one-third of subjects with hip fractures were admitted within 24 h of the fracture, and surgery was delayed beyond 48 h in the majority.

These findings highlight the need to improve access to care for hip fracture subjects.

There is limited data on the timing of admission and surgery following a low trauma hip fracture (HF) in South Africa (SA).

A prospective, observational study was conducted at public and private hospitals in three provinces, Gauteng (GP), KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) and the Western Cape (WC), in SA to determine time from fracture to admission and from admission to surgery in patients presenting with low trauma HF. Associations with delayed admission and surgery were explored using logistic regression.

The median age of the 1996 subjects was 73 years (IQR 63-81 years), the majority were women (1346, 67%) and 1347 (67%) were admitted to the public hospitals. In one-third of subjects (661, 33%), admission was delayed to beyond 24 h after the fracture. There was a significantly longer time to admission in public compared to private hospitals (21 h [IQR 10.0-48.5] versus 6 h [IQR 3.3-14.1], p < 0.001), in subjects < 65 years, the WC and when admission occurred on a weekday. Surgery was delayed beyond 48 h in the majority (1272, 69%) of subjects and was significantly longer in public compared to private hospitals (130 h [IQR 62.6-212.4] versus 45.4 h [IQR 24.0-75.5], p < 0.001), in KZN, and when admission occurred after hours.

The burden of HFs is higher at public hospitals in SA, where there is a significant delay in admission after a fracture and surgery after admission. This highlights the need for a review of HF care pathways, resources and policies.