Review of non-Welsh residents' unintentional injuries presenting to an Emergency Department in South Wales: A nine-year retrospective study

Ceri E Battle,Phillip A Evans,Vanessa Evans

doi:10.5339/jemtac.2016.2

Abstract

Background: Non-residents visiting an area often have limited local knowledge of the natural environmental conditions, exacerbating their risk of unintentional injuries. The aim of this study was to determine the impact of unintentional injuries of non-Welsh residents presenting to the Emergency Department of a regional trauma unit in South Wales. Methods: A retrospective hospital database review was undertaken from 2006 to 2014. All patients presenting to the ED with a non-Welsh postcode, with a diagnosis of unintentional injury were included in the study. Data collected included age, sex, time of year of presentation, injury mechanism, body part injured and patient outcome. Descriptive data were recorded and analysed. Results: From 2006 to 2014, overall attendance of non-Welsh residents to the ED was 4323. A total of 2961 (68%) patients were male, with a median age of 28 (IQR: 18–47). The most common time of year for non-Welsh resident presentations to the ED was the summer. A mechanical fall was the most commonly reported mechanism of injury. There was a significantly higher prevalence of mechanical falls and alleged assaults in the non-resident cohort, when compared to residents presenting with unintentional injuries (both p < 0.001). Conclusions: This is the first study to investigate unintentional injuries of non-Welsh residents and their impact on an ED in the UK. Further prospective research is needed in order to investigate whether the introduction of new public health policies impact on ED services in tourist areas in the UK.

Highlights

The demand for emergency health care is consistently increasing across the United Kingdom, with an overall rise of approximately 1.5–2% a year since 1966, when there were less than seven million attendees, compared with more than 20 million today.[1]
The hospital database was searched for all patients presenting to the ED with a non-Welsh postcode, with a diagnosis coded as “unintentional injury”, with a sub-coding of trauma, burns, drowning/near drowning, and hypo/hyperthermia
Data was presented as numbers and percentages or medians and interquartile ranges (IQR) and comparisons made using Chi-square test

Summary

Introduction

The demand for emergency health care is consistently increasing across the United Kingdom, with an overall rise of approximately 1.5–2% a year since 1966, when there were less than seven million attendees, compared with more than 20 million today.[1] There are numerous factors believed to compromise performance of the ED, including overcrowding and increased waiting times which occur as a result of the increased demand.[2,3,4] In 2014, over 4.4 million people visited Swansea and the surrounding area.[5] These visitors to Swansea included primarily early-retired couples, younger affluent professionals, and families with children.[5] Non-residents visiting an area often have limited local knowledge of the natural environmental conditions, exacerbating their risk of unintentional injuries.[6]. Non-residents visiting an area often have limited local knowledge of the natural environmental conditions, exacerbating their risk of unintentional injuries.

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