A&E TOLL OF DEATH-TRAP PAVEMENTS

Falls spark a fivefold rise in hospital admissions as councils blamed for failure to grit during cold snap

SCOTTISH A&E departments have been inundated with patients injured in slips on icy ‘death-trap’ pavements.

Health boards yesterday confirmed a spike in reports of sprains and breaks after Arctic conditions saw temperatures fall as low as -11C.

In Grampian, one of the worst-affected areas last week, ice-related fall injuries rose fivefold compared to the same time last year.

Glasgow, Fife, Lothian, Borders, Dumfries and Galloway, Forth Valley, Highland, Ayrshire and Arran and Lanarkshire also recorded increases.

Facebook pages run by Scotland’s local authorities have been swamped with complaints about untreated roads and pavements left like ‘skating rinks’.

One angry resident wrote on Aberdeen City Council’s page: ‘Phoned council to say someone needs to grit our car park as soon as possible.

‘We cannot leave or enter the building

SCOTLAND’S accident and emergency departments have recorded their worst performance in more than two years as winter pressures hit the NHS.

The latest figures for the week ending December 10 show that only 8 .9 per cent of patients were seen within four hours – the worst performance in A&E since March 2015.

A total of 450 patients spent more than eight hours waiting in an emergency department, while 107 waited for more than 12 hours.

The Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh had the poorest performance of all hospitals, with only 4.1 per cent of patients seen within the set time.

Health Secretary Shona Robison said that with the start of winter, flu, respiratory illnesses, slips and trips had piled pressure on emergency departments.

Miss Robison said: ‘Cold weather and particularly black ice is affecting the performance of our A&E departments and we expect waiting times to fluctuate from week to week.’