NHS 'not ready' for hip crisis

Britain is facing an epidemic of hip fractures in the coming decades but the NHS is unprepared to deal with it, doctors warned yesterday.

While 30 per cent of people suffering a hip fracture make a full recovery, half are permanently disabled and the rest die within 12 months of the injury.

Publishing the first clinical guideline on hip fracture, the National Institute for Clinical Excellence said 70 to 75,000 of the injuries occur each year in the UK but this could rise to 100,000 by 2020 as the population ages.