Significant improvements in NHS care for orthopaedic patients over last decade

There have been significant improvements in care for patients undergoing hip and knee surgery through the NHS over the past 10 years, finds a new study led by UCL researchers. The study, published in BMJ Open, set out to evaluate the impact of Getting it Right First Time (GIRFT) , a national NHS improvement programme which started in 2012. Initially established by a senior surgeon to focus on orthopaedics, GIRFT is now one of the largest improvement programmes in the NHS, operating across over 40 specialties. It operates at both local (NHS provider Trusts) and national levels, recognising the importance of both system-level leadership and local leadership in Trusts for driving change. The researchers, who were part of National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Applied Research Collaboration (ARC) North Thames, looked at data from over 700,000 patients who underwent primary hip or knee replacement surgery at 126 NHS Trusts between April 2009 and March 2018 and interviewed over 50 NHS staff. The team employed a mixed methods approach to conduct a comprehensive analysis of the impacts of GIRFT in orthopaedics from different perspectives and at both national and local levels. This included a statistical analysis of linked national datasets to measure the impact on both processes and outcomes of care, an economic analysis, and qualitative methods to understand staff perceptions of GIRFT's impact.