A small victory for common sense that reduces injuries?

This weekend one of us noticed in a Sunday newspaper a very small piece of good news.

We do apologize for using the photograph above that many involved in health care may find highly offensive. That is just the face not the potentially offensive weapon although the two are linked.

Have a read here from a source on the other side of the Pond and see how many inconsistencies there are between the two pieces as you read on but remember accuracy in journalism is not essential to get the job done especially as they may be different stories?

The small piece led us to do research and we found this.

Isn’t curious how it takes a long time for simple ideas to pay dividends. Remember crash helmets, seatbelts, airbags and smoking bans?

So why are we here at ND Central so enthused by shatterproof glasses?

Well this is not a new idea and if you have spent an evening as the only doctor in an A&E department and out of 30 cases over one five hour period 27 were glassings you would be relieved at any potential simple reduction in workload and human suffering.

Most towns in the UK will have their own WMDs (Watering holes of Mass Disfigurement) where most weekends as the love of one drunken man, or woman, for another increases with each alcoholic beverage they consume until its eventual outpouring into violence usually at closing time.

The favoured weapon of choice is the glass ,for it is freely available, and glass is said to be the sharpest cutting substance known. Apply liberally to the weak flesh of the human body and all sorts of injuries can result mostly to the face, hands and forearms. Although the article in the paper said eyes have been loss we collectively have be fortunate enough to have been spared that completely unnecessary injury.

If the experience in the Southern Northshire port city of Hull is repeated then the £ 7 million savings multiplied by 151 other PCTs could result in a national saving of over a billion pounds in medical and legal expenditure?

Like many simple things it will probably take time to get going so until then A&E departments across the country will continue to stitch up glass cut individuals most weekends. They have paid for their beer but the glassing and the medical care will be free of charge.

Once they are stitched up and sober they might realize that, if they can get a conviction against their assailant then, there is criminal injuries compensation to be had as well as free medical care. And the legal costs involved here pale the medical costs into insignificance.

Praise be to the Party for giving us weekends with which to enjoy ourselves. We are sure our colleagues in A&E and the Police and Ambulance services look forward to them in the same way we look forward to Monday mornings.