Accidental injuries account for 10% of emergency hospital admissions

More than 57,000 hospital emergency admissions in Scotland in the last year were for unintentional injuries, data has shown.

This equates to one in 10 of all emergency admissions north of the border, according to the latest Public Health Scotland (PHS) figures.

The data was taken for the year ending March 2022.

Falls were by far the most common cause of emergency admissions for unintentional injuries in children, for both males and females, accounting for almost half (46%) of the 5,919 emergency admissions in 2021/22.

Figures showed the rate of falls in those aged 65 and over has increased from 20.7 per 1,000 in 2012/13 to 22.5 per 1,000 in 2021/22.

And 87% of unintentional injuries in this age group were due to falls.

In 2021, unintentional injuries led to 2,751 deaths.

PHS said there remains a significant gap in the standardised mortality ratios between the most deprived and least deprived areas in Scotland.

Death rates due to unintentional injuries in adults were 96% higher in the most deprived areas but 50% lower in the least deprived areas when compared to the Scottish average.

Due to Covid-19 restrictions and with periods of lockdown, the number of vehicle collisions went down over the last two years.

This led to a decrease of 15% in the road traffic accident hospital admission rate between 2019/20 to 2021/22.