DIY Injuries       

FOI REFERENCE: 24205   FOI DATE: 3^rd July 2024    

Request:

How many injuries that resulted in accident and emergency department visits to your trust were caused by DIY? Data for 2020,2021,2022 and 2023

How many of those injured were male?

How many of those injured were female?

How many of those injured were in the 18-24 age group?

How many of those injured were in the 25-49 age group?

How many of those injured were in the 50-64 age group?

How many of those injured were in the 65+ age group?

How many of those injured required prolonged stays in hospital?

Response:

Worcestershire Acute Hospitals have reviewed the data from the urgent care department’s system and have found less than 5 incidents that have recorded with the wording DIY Injury within the text.

The urgent Care system records the following below,

Chief Complaints – a set list of complaints identified when the patient is triaged – these tend to be more general and describe the location (on the body) of the injury such as ‘HEAD INJURY’.

Diagnosis – a set list of diagnosis identified by the doctor / specialist seeing the patient – these are also relatively general, describing the type of injury and body location such as ‘CLOSED FRACTURE: TOE’

Presenting Complaint – this is a free text field (max 40 characters) which is completed on arrival but is dependent on the staff member entering specific words that would relate to DIY etc. this could be fall from ladder which could be DIY but also could be a work related incident.

Staff Note – another free text field (max 300 characters) which can have more detail, but often gives detail on treatment or onward care rather than cause of injury.