£11m spent on under-5s treated in A&E for injuries at home

Posted: March 7, 2016

Posted in: Personal Injury 

A new report published by the Royal Society of the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) and the Royal College of Emergency Medicine (RCEM). It has revealed that Scottish hospitals spent more than £11 million in the period of 2013-14 treating under-5s in Accident and Emergency departments. It reported that almost three quarters of accidents occurred in the home, with half of the children being treated having fallen from heights of less than a metre. The main injuries being treated included falls, burns, poisonings and fractures, and health chiefs have called on £2 million to be invested in moves to prevent accidental injuries to young children.

Scotland-wide safety campaign

In the report, which is being launched today in Edinburgh, the organisations are requesting that a Scotland-wide safety campaign be rolled out. They are asking that safety educators be appointed to visit families to talk about accident prevention and fit equipment such as child safety gates. They are calling for educators to accompany health visitors targeting the most vulnerable families in areas with the highest rates of personal injury. 

Speaking on behalf of RoSPA, chief executive Tom Mullarkey said that it had been proved that a combination of information, education and safety equipment had a very high success rate in preventing accidents. He stated that previous injury prevention programmes had shown a 29 percent reduction in adverse incidents. A reduction at this level would reduce hospital attendances in the under-5s by more than 7000.

President of the RCEM, Dr Cliff Mann, said that the proposed programme “would prevent substantial numbers of accidents involving children under 5”. 

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