Directors at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust have been told that they face paying penalties because of the high number of patients who are being readmitted.
The national rate of people having to go back into hospital within 28 days of being discharged is on the increase but in Leeds people are going back in at an even higher rate. In the year up to July 2010 almost 4,000 were readmitted within two days of leaving hospital and 12,000 were back in within 14 days, a rate of 5.7% compared to 3.9% at other hospital trusts.
Bosses at the Leeds NHS trust say that the figures do not take account of whether the patients were readmitted due to factors completely unrelated to the original treatment and also whether the readmissions were actually planned. However they stress that they will look into the reasons for the high number and try and reduce it.
The penalties are unwelcome, coming at a time when NHS trusts throughout the country are trying to control their spending. From April 2011 Leeds hospitals will have to find £44m worth of savings.
