§ Mr. Sheermanasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will provide details of (a) the annual cost to the National Health Services, (b) the percentage of emergency orthopaedic admissions, and (c) the average length of stay in hospital for the treatment of (i) serious injuries suffered by pedestrians and (ii) serious injuries suffered by motor cyclists.
§ Mrs. Currie[pursuant to her reply, 20 July 1987]: The treatment of serious injuries suffered by pedestrians is estimated to have cost the National Health Service £26 million in 1985–86, and the treatment of serious injuries suffered by riders and passengers of motor cycles, scooters and mopeds is estimated to have cost £25.7 million. These figures are for England only and are based on an average length of stay for all seriously injured casualties of road traffic accidents of 12.5 days. I am sorry that I cannot give the hon. Member the information he seeks in respect of emergency orthopaedic admissions in precisely the form requested. The latest available information for all road traffic accident cases is given in the table.
Road traffic accident cases (RTA) treated in NHS hospitals, 1985, England Estimated numbers RTA cases as percentage of emergency cases Cases treated in Traumatic and Orthopaedic departments 3,200 12.0 Cases treated in other departments 2,387 1.1 Average duration of stay in days (all departments) 12.5