At 13:36 25/09/06 +0100, Macfarlane, Alison wrote:
>Hospital in-patient statistics are kept separately from outpatient
>statistics and until recently outpatient statistics were not very
>detailed. If the admission was for an injury, there would be two codes,
>one for the nature of the injury and one for the external cause.
Indeed, but unless things have changed since I was last working in an A&E
department (admittedly a long-time ago), the available information (whether
used 'as statistics' or not) on patients presenting to the department with
'RTA-related' injuries would be very accurate and complete.
Every time a patient presents to an A&E department, they are entered in a
'register' (paper in my day, but presumably now electronic). One of the
mandatory columns/fields of a patient entry is whether or not attendance
related to an injury sustained in a road traffic accident - the main reason
being, I understood, that (although I'm not sure that it ever actually
happened!), I gather that the NHS is theoretically able to make a nominal
charge for treating any such injuries (perhaps on the basis that it ought
to be covered by someone's insurance?).
Kind Regards,
John
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