A QUARTER of all elderly people who suffered a major injury failed to be diagnosed properly, a groundbreaking new study in Southampton has revealed.

The study of trauma care in the over 65s led by a city anaesthetist found that in a quarter of all cases reviewed, doctors had either missed an injury or the patient suffered a delayed diagnosis.

The shocking figures have led one senior doctor to accuse colleagues of taking "an ageist approach" towards the elderly.

Dr Andy Eynon, former director of major trauma in Southampton, said: "The development of trauma networks across the country in 2012 has been a revelation, saving hundreds more lives a year, yet the elderly population seems to have been forgotten amid the successes."

In the most serious cases patients who had a ruptured spleen went undiagnosed for a potentially life-threatening eight hours. No patient died as a result of being misdiagnosed.

The study is the first time major trauma care for the over 65s has been examined and as a result the issue will now become a national priority with Southampton leading the way in improving care.

The study, led by Dr Laura Tompsett, an anaesthetist in Southampton, showed 67 of 282 patients reviewed from April 2012 to August 2014 suffered a missed injury or delayed diagnosis, despite 43 per cent presenting with predictable signs of major trauma - the term used to describe serious or life-threatening injuries.

The research also found that 84 per cent of patients lived independently before admission but only 31 per cent were discharged back to their homes.

Dr Tompsett, who led the study after her own grandfather's trauma injuries were missed, said many healthcare professionals were “simply not thinking trauma” when it came to the over 65s.

She added that the main reason was because of the stoic nature of the older generation they often did not reveal the full extent of their injuries which would lead doctors to miss diagnose them.

Instead, she said, doctors should be thinking about major trauma possibilities from the outset.

Figures also showed the number of elderly people suffering falls and accidents in the city had more than doubled in the past three years.