Why gardening is a thorn in side of hospital bosses
IT’S a hobby often associated with pensioners and lazy days on the front lawn.
But green-fingered Scots had best beware because experts have warned that gardening is one of the most dangerous pastimes.
A report reveals the NHS spent £66million last year patching up accident-prone adults injured while gardening.
Clumsy plant-growers accounted for a third of the £200million spent treating accidents in casualty departments.
Another dangerous place to be is at work, with 13 per cent of all injuries happening in the office, at a factory or during a shift at a café or pub. Only 12 per cent of all accidents happened during a car journey.
A statement on the Royal Horticultural Society’s website says: ‘There are potential risks when gardening, but planning your tasks, using the correct tools for the job and keeping machinery and tools well maintained are all steps you can take to keep safe.’
The Strategic Assessment of Unintentional Harm report reveals that, overall, accidental topples accounted for 64 per cent of all unintentional adult injuries in Scotland in 2016, with 54,500 adults (one in 11) needing hospi- tal treatment. Researchers found that one in eight children needing hospital treatment are injured as a result of falling over.
The study also shows there are between 1,250 and 1,400 deaths from accidents in Scotland each year – a figure 16 to 18 times the number of annual murder victims.
The Scottish Government has now published a series of measures to reduce the number of accidents and relieve pressure on the NHS, known as the National Strategy for Unintentional Harm. The assessment says: ‘The majority of incidents of unintentional harm are preventable and, when looking at the scale of the problem in relation to associated costs and sheer numbers, there is a strong argument that this should be focused in a more co-ordinated and strategic manner.’
Accident rates are higher in deprived areas, with children from poor backgrounds being 19 per cent more likely to attend hospital as the result of an unintentional injury. For deprived adults, the figure is nearly 40 per cent higher than the Scottish average
Scots in deprived areas are almost twice as likely to die as a result of an accident, while those in wealthy areas are 37 per cent less likely than the average person to die accidentally.
Road collisions and accidental house fires also increase with rising levels of deprivation.
The report found that, over the past five years, 46 per cent of deaths as a result of unintentional harm are in the over-80 age group (588 deaths), with 413 among those over 85.
The report adds: ‘Unintentional harm in the home (falls in particular), unintentional harm to the very young and the very old and to people living in more deprived communities are prominent issues that emerged during the strategic assessment and have limited coordinated focus in Scotland.’
‘Most incidents are preventable’