‘Hospitals are so busy with Covid, car crash victims may not get surgery’, consultant warns

Consultant orthopaedic surgeon Ronan McKeown, who works out of Craigavon Area Hospital, issued an extraordinary warning for people to take extra care to avoid accidents due to the situation in hospitals.

Mr McKeown said: “Currently, our hospitals are rightly gearing up for the latest coronavirus surge and we will not have the resources to provide our normal high level of service within orthopaedics.

“If people do injure themselves, we may not be able to offer them the surgery they need at this time which may unfortunately lead to long term health consequences for those individuals.”

The Southern Trust say Mr McKeown and his colleagues working in Trauma and Orthopaedics are well used to treating patients with a wide variety of injuries related to: road traffic collisions, accidents in the home, sports activities and much more.

The Trust are urging people to avoid those type of injury by slowing down while driving and avoiding certain household tasks.

Mr McKeown said: “More accidents happen in the home than anywhere else, so I would encourage everyone to be mindful of the dangers in and around the home.

“Ladders, steps, cables and power tools are all potentially dangerous at the best of times, so we would really urge people not to take unnecessary risks and to delay any jobs which could wait.”

He added: “We know that reducing speed by even 10 mile an hour will significantly reduce the risk of a road traffic collision and will reduce the risk of injury in the event of a collision.

“By cutting your speed you will be helping yourself and others and taking pressure off the health service at this most challenging time.”