NICE has produced a guide for commissioners on hip fracture services, which provides advice on commissioning services for people with fragility fracture of the hip or fracture of the hip due to osteoporosis or osteopenia.
Hip fracture is a major public health issue and is directly linked to the country's ageing population.
There are around 60,000 emergency hospital admissions in England each year are for hip fracture, and this figure is expected to rise significantly over the next decade if current trends continue.
People with broken hips can have poor health outcomes, with only half discharged to their usual place of residence within 30 days, and 1 in 3 dying within 12 months.
The high mortality rate is mainly due to the high prevalence of pre-existing illnesses in such people with hip fracture.
In order to help improve the health outcomes for those people with fractured hips, NICE has produced a guide for commissioners which highlights evidence-based interventions that can help improve health outcomes.
The guide covers several recommendations from the NICE pathway and quality standard on hip fracture.
A number of key areas of care for people with hip fracture are covered, where evidence shows that these can significantly improve outcomes for patients, reduce length of hospital stays, helping patients recover their mobility faster and reduce number of follow-up procedures.
These areas include specifying a Hip Fracture Programme, specifying services for the rapid optimisation of fitness for surgery and specifying services for the secondary prevention of fragility fractures.
Commissioners are encouraged to work with a range of partners when planning services for people with or recovering from hip fracture.
Such partners include clinical commissioning groups, health and wellbeing boards, and social care service users and carers.
Professor Cameron Swift, Emeritus Professor of Health Care of the Elderly, Kings College London, said: “This guide presents an exceptional opportunity for commissioners to deliver a comprehensive world-leading, evidence-driven, cost-effective response to a major, urgent and costly health care challenge.
“Used in conjunction with a ready-made national measurement tool (the National Hip Fracture Database), forward progress can be readily and easily charted. I commend it to them.”