Icy conditions blamed for large amount of patients with fractures
West Middlesex University Hospital has seen exceptionally high numbers of patients attending its accident and emergency department recently.
Between Saturday 19th and Monday 21st December, the department treated over 1,000 patients, with Sunday 20th December seeing a record breaking 397 attendances.
Over Christmas Day and Boxing Day, numbers were slightly up on last year, with Christmas Day having 248 attendances and Boxing Day seeing 331 people attending A&E. Numbers are continuing to exceed 300 each day over this Christmas period.
The cold weather and icy conditions have seen large numbers of patients presenting with fractures (broken bones), as well as some very ill patients with respiratory complaints such as asthma made worse by the weather.
Consultant in Emergency Medicine Dr Zul Mirza said, “Winter is generally a particularly busy period for us, but the recent weather conditions have led to a spike in the numbers of patients arriving in A&E. We have a very dedicated and professional team, not only in A&E but throughout the hospital, who have been working exceptionally hard to cope with the extraordinarily high numbers of patients. I would like to thank everyone here, as well as colleagues in primary care, the ambulance service and neighbouring hospitals for pulling together to minimise any disruption to services.”
December 29, 2009
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