bychosis wrote: ↑Sun Jan 14, 2024 4:14 pm
Might change a few peoples thinking of the numbers are bumped up from 1200 (not many out of 25mil) to include injuries. 30,000 is a lot.
Yes, but these sorts of non-fatality figures don’t get our governments worked up, it is not a sexy topic with lots of social media debate and pressure groups to exert political pressure.
AND that ball-park number- 30,000 - does not include the “walking wounded” who attend Emergency departments and do not require admission to a hospital ward.
NOR does it include many other common types of presentation to health care professionals :
Here are just 2 examples
Example 1.
Young bloke has a bit of a crash while riding his pushbike to Uni. He had to brake and swerve suddenly to avoid a car that didn’t give way
He thinks he’s OK apart from a few scratches, but at Uni lectures he notices that his wrist is getting awfully sore as the day progresses.
So he catches a bus to the big hospital ED which is not far from Uni.
After a few hours he has been seen and has had a scan done.
He waits bit longer for the scan result .
The report says something like “suspected undisplaced fracture of the Scaphoid bone In wrist, recommend further investigation with MRI scan within 72 hours”
The Emergency Department junior doctor looks at report and says something like “sugar, that’s not something that I can organise from here tonight - go and see your GP in the morning”
So Uni student tries to book appointment online to see GP. But there are no appointments available for 3 weeks.
So he rings up the health advisory number and is advised that he will have to return to the ED for further management.
So that he does, and if he managed to see the same young doc from the night before, perhaps the doc will have learned that it is probable a dumb thing to tell patients to “go and see your GP in the morning”
Example 2.
bloke stops his car for amber light but car behind does not and shunts into his car from behind.
No big dramas, it was a Toyota Yaris, not a Mack truck. Details are exchanging etc.
But the next day our bloke wakes up with a stiff, sore neck. It’s verging on agony.
There’s no way he can go to work with this fairly typical whiplash type neck sprain.
His employer gives him the very useful (not) advice to go and see his GP and get a medical certificate!
So he goes to GP clinic and the Receptionist sees that he is in agony and squeezes him in to see GP straight away.
He gets his med cert for a few days and a script for some analgesics and is told to come back if not getting better quickly
He does get better but not that quickly so a week later he sees GP again and gets referred to a Physio
Another week or 2 later he’s heaps better, but still has to see GP again to get a report as he wants to make a claim against the other drivers CTP insurance.
Apologies if all of this is a bit long winded but so is the aftermath of Road trauma, even if it isn’t that serious in the greater scheme of things