Audit of trauma management in Scotland
Scottish Trauma Audit Group

About this release

This release by Public Health Scotland (PHS) is the twelfth annual report by the Scottish Trauma Audit Group (STAG) since 2011, focusing on patients with severe injury. Compliance with Scottish Trauma Network (STN) key performance indicators (KPIs), mortality and patient reported outcome measures (PROMs) are reported along with a comprehensive summary of injuries and the patient journey for both adults (16 years and over) and paediatrics (0-15 years).

Severe injury is categorised as major, moderate, or minor using the Injury Severity Score (Baker et al, 1974). To be included in STAG an injured patient has to be in hospital for at least three days, be admitted to critical care or die in hospital. There are many more patients with an injury admitted to Scottish hospitals which are reported in the Unintentional injuries report by PHS.

Main points

STAG include 8715 adult and 203 paediatric patients with severe injuries treated in Scottish hospitals in 2024 in this report.

Patient outcome

• Hospital length of stay showed a median stay of 10 days for adults and 5 days for paediatrics.     
• 7% of all patients died in hospital (up to 30 days) and 21% of patients with major trauma.
• 79% of patients employed at the time of their injury returned to work at six months, compared to 67% before the STN.

Graph shows employment status pre and post the introduction of the Scottish Trauma Network. An increase in patients going back to work at six months is shown.

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Employment status for adult patients employed prior to injury at six months post injury (pre and post the introduction of the STN)

Patients aged 16 years and over (adult)

• 20% of adult patients were classified as having major trauma (n=1555).
• The only rise in patients with severe trauma was in the 65 years and over in 2024.
• The median age in adults raised again from 69 years in 2023 to 70 years in 2024.
• 49% of patients 65 years and over assessed using the Clinical Frailty Scale were frail and 17% were mildly frail.
• The most common mechanism of injury in adults was a fall (78.3%, n=6827), with 73.2% (n=4999) caused by a fall on the same level.

Patients aged 0–15 years (paediatric)

• 20% of paediatric patients were classified as having major trauma (n=41).
• We continue to see a peak in the younger (0-2 years) age groups accounting for 28.1% of all paediatric patients.
• Falls and moving vehicle injuries accounted for 43% (n=87) and 35% (n=71) of all injuries.
• 42% of paediatrics patients were brought to hospital by parents or carers transport (self) in comparison to 10% of adults.

Background

STAG’s aim is to improve the quality of care, patient experience, and outcomes of severely injured patients through measuring compliance against Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and promoting use of data to support local quality improvement.

Full details of the KPIs and STAG inclusion criteria can be found by on the PHS website.

Further information

The next release of this publication will be 25 August 2026.