A&E visits rise after spike in ice injuries PKC pre-treating roads after‘exceptional’demand at PRI
There has been a“sharp increase” in the number of people being admitted to A&E with broken bones after falling on the ice.
As temperatures have plummeted over the past week in Perth and Kinross, icy conditions on the region’s roads, pavements and parks has led to a rise in the number of people breaking bones and injuring themselves over the past few days - according to NHS Tayside.
The health board said they have seen an “exceptional” demand in patients being admitted to Accident and Emergency at Perth Royal Infirmary owing to people slipping treacherous surfaces.
Dr Michael Johnston, A&E consultant at NHS Tayside, said: “Our emergency departments have seen a significantly higher than normal number of patients over the last couple of days, mostly attributed to falls caused by the icy conditions.
“We would advise people who do need to venture out when the weather is wintery to dress warmly, wear sensible shoes with a good grip and to take care when walking on icy surfaces.”
In response to this, Perth and Kinross Council say they have been pre-treating a number of roads across the region in a bid to reduce the number of accidents ending in A&E.
A spokesperson for the local authority said: “Perth and Kinross Council has a fleet of large gritting vehicles and pavement tractors that are currently deployed to pretreat and treat our category one carriageway rotes throughout Perth and Kinross.
“Our category one carriageway routes have been treated twice per day every day and we are on day five of all category two routes being treated.”
However, the spokesperson added they cannot reach all roads, and encouraged as many people as possible to help keep the roads and pavements ice-free.
The representative continued: “The council has to operate within the available resources at its disposal and as such cannot pre-treat category two and three parts of the network, we can only attend to them during normal working hours following the completion of the category one network treatment.
“The council has approximately 1300 grit bins around Perth and Kinross. We have also agreed to promote a self-help scheme for footway gritting treatment over the winter months and is seeking volunteers to grit prearranged sections of footway with a push along spreader.”
The spokesperson added: “We would urge all road users to take extra care if temperatures are well below freezing, as they were for much of Perth and Kinross last week.
“Grit is not as effective at temperatures below minus five degrees, and does not melt ice below minus nine.
“While pre-treatment begins on our category one roads at 3pm in preparation for the forecast overnight conditions, if rain falls before temperatures drop then this may wash away grit meaning the pretreatment is not effective.”