Forty per cent of hip surgery patients were re-admitted to New Cross Hospital as emergencies within weeks of operations, an investigation has found.

The Wolverhampton hospital has carried out a review of patients who went back into hospital within four weeks of undergoing a total hip replacement during 2008/9.

The probe was launched after health watchdog the Care Quality Commission issued an alert over the number of emergency re-admissions within 28 days.

The investigation by 10 orthopaedic consultants examined the case notes of 45 patients, with 35 having had surgery between October 2008 and December 2009.

The review found that 40 per cent of re-admissions at New Cross could have been avoided, with patients coming back to hospital within 11 days of their operation on average. Two patients who were re-admitted should not have gone home.

One had a chest infection and was re-admitted within four hours while the other  was allowed home on Christmas Eve with a pressure sore which deteriorated, the inquiry found. He was re-admitted nine days later.

In 21 cases of avoidable re-admissions, patients returned to hospital suspected of having deep vein thrombosis or a blood clot. The hospital has now changed the drugs it uses to treat DVT.

Bosses say the rate of emergency re-admission is now much lower.

Vivien Hall, chief operating officer at New Cross, said today: “The audit did show that some re-admissions were down to coding errors, giving a false picture, but this has since been addressed by the trust.

“A further issue was the readmission of patients presenting with a slightly swollen leg. These patients were readmitted to investigate the possibility of DVT.

“On review, the trust felt that these patients could have been handled differently by sending them home with an anti-coagulation treatment, before returning the next day for a scan.”