Performance stats for private patients published
New figures show there were 18 serious safety incidents – known as never events – reported across 273 independent and NHS hospitals treating private patients in 2020.
This compares with 19 across 272 sites between 1 October 2019 to 30 September 2020.
Data from the Private Healthcare Information Network (PHIN) also shows there were:
194 reported healthcare associated infection (HCAIs) in the year across 800,000 bed days, across the sites where PHIN could calculate a rate.
This shows a slight change in the overall HCAI infection rate from 21.9 per 100,000 bed days in the previous period (1 October 2019 to 30 September 2020) to 24 per 100,000 bed days.
There were 22 HCAIs for which PHIN could not calculate a rate, making a total of 216 HCAIs in the period.
50 reported surgical site infections (SSI) across 24,819 patients undergoing hip and knee replacement procedures. The overall percentage risk remained unchanged at 0.2% in the new period. There were no SSIs for which PHIN could not calculate a percentage risk.
The percentage of patients reporting positive health improvement following hip replacement surgery, undertaken as a primary procedure, showed a change from 97.9% in the period ending September 2019, to 98% in the latest period ending December 2019.
For knee replacement surgery, undertaken as a primary procedure, the percentage of patients reporting positive health improvement changed slightly from 94.4% to 94.9%, with knee revision surgery changing from 88.9% to 85.7% over the same periods.
The total number of private spells in the UK decreased from 539,720 in the previous period to 527,405 in the current period.
PHIN has updated data on its website and produced a downloadable version of the aggregated performance measures at hospital site level.
The datasheets – at hospital site only – can be downloaded here: https://media.phin.org.uk/download-our-updated-information-on-private-care-in-the-uk/
PHIN said it was important to note that the datasheet for patient numbers and length of stay also includes NHS-funded activity at those facilities.