Declining hospital admissions from road accidents

Press, 12 July 1984, Page 5

Declining hospital admissions from road accidents

Road accident victim admissions had dropped steadily for the last three years, the health services committee of the Canterbury Hospital Board was told yesterday.

A total of 1078 motorvehicle accident victims were admitted in 1983, compared to 1327 in 1980. Last year’s figure was 3.4 per cent of all admissions to Christchurch, Burwood, and Princess Margaret hospitals while the 1980 figure was 4.4 per cent of all admissions. Committee members were surprised at the figures, most thinking they would have increased.

Accident victims usually stayed in hospital longer than other patients. The report by the medical superintendent of Christchurch Hospital, Dr David Andrews, said the average stay in hospital was 10.7. days but accident victims stayed for an average of 11.6 days. Mrs Caroline Cartwright said the Health Department spent $3O million a year in caring for road accident victims. Some surgery cases had to be cancelled to cope with the influx of patients

from motor-vehicle accidents. It was a tremendous cost for a “preventable disease,” she said. Statistics showed that 158 people were admitted to the three hospitals after being in two-car collisions in 1983. One hundred and forty motor-cyclists and 10 pillion passengers were admitted after accidents with other vehicles. “Collisions with stationary objects” was also a large source of accident patients. The stationary objects included “one horse, one dog, one sheep, one bridge, and 105 lamp-posts,” said Dr Andrews. Bed pans Christchurch Hospital woud save $60,000 a year now that “old-fashioned” bed pans were being used instad of the disposable variety, said Dr Andrews.

The committee asked for a report on the need and' implications of changing back to non-disposable bed pans now that the manufacturer would stop making disposable urinals.

Dr Andrews said it cost

$49,000 to stock the hospital with polypropylene bed pans and sterilising equipment. The material from which disposable bed pans were made had been found to be a possible source of a rare infection, he said. The decision to change back to older methods at Christchurch Hospital had been made before the discovery, he said. The committee would consider having other hospitals change back to nondisposable bed pans after it had received a report from the supply manager. Name change The Alcohol and Drug Dependence Centre will probably shorten its name to Alcohol and Drug Centre. The committee decided that the world “dependence” implied that people treated at the centre were dependent on drugs or alcohol. Only 25 per cent of its patients were physically dependent on either of the two substances. The shortened name is used by similar clinics run by other hospital boards.