HOSPITALS:SOME OF the fractures sustained by people as a result of falling during the current cold weather are so severe they are what would be expected if they had been hit by a car, according to a consultant in emergency medicine at St James's Hospital in Dublin.
Dr Pat Plunkett said yesterday he did not think he had seen so many people presenting at AE with injuries as a result of slips and falls on ice for 20 years.
He said older people were expected to suffer falls but the number of young people presenting with “very nasty high-intensity fractures has been pretty appalling . . . the sort of thing you would expect in somebody hit by a car”.
These included arm, wrist and thigh fractures.
“It means that a lot of them need to go to the operating theatre. That leads to queues for theatres because there are just not enough people to do the surgery.”
Dr Plunkett suggested people should walk more slowly and plant their feet on the ground carefully. They needed to assume every pavement was covered in ice, he said. He also advised people to wear the best anti-slip shoes they have. “Leather soles are not a good idea.”
At University College Hospital Galway, there has also been a significant increase in the number of people admitted with injuries following slips and falls.
Dr James Binchy, consultant in emergency medicine, said there had been some days when the number of people presenting with fractures doubled or more than doubled.
“It’s a significant increase in our workload. There has been a huge increase in the numbers admitted to the orthopaedic department for surgery on fractures.”
Dr Cathal O’Donnell, a consultant in emergency medicine at Limerick Regional Hospital, said 55 people came through the hospital’s emergency department with fractures during the 24 hours of December 25th. “That would normally be a week’s activity.”
There were similar reports from Sligo General Hospital, Dublin’s St Vincent’s hospital and Cork University Hospital last week.
In a statement last evening, the Health Service Executive confirmed the numbers attending emergency departments across the State were up in the week ending December 27th, much of them due to falls.
Many hospitals, it said, had increased the number of orthopaedic theatre sessions to deal with the increase in fractures.