Description

Increasing health care costs and an ageing population make hip fractures one of the most pressing concerns for developed nations. In addition, the proportion of people within the community aged 75 years and over is steadily growing, and is reflected in the increased number of very elderly patients being admitted to hospital with a hip fracture. Very elderly patients put increased demands upon the rehabilitation and social services, and early supported discharge schemes are unsuitable for the very elderly. Geriatric orthopaedic rehabilitation units are an alternative, but are still experimental and need further evaluation. Currently, there is little evidence that an increase in the number of acute orthopaedic trauma beds is necessary to deal with the increasing number of hip fracture patients within the United Kingdom, provided that sufficient convalescent facilities exist to off load the acute orthopaedic units. Overall, many of our future short to medium term difficulties can likely be solved by providing appropriate convalescent and long-term care facilities for the elderly.