Health
With regard to her reply to question 7 of 8 July 2022:
(1) (a) What is the number of injuries that have been treated in (i) 2019, (ii) 2020, (iii) 2021 and (iv) 2022 to date, (b) what is the breakdown according to (i) road-traffic injuries and (ii) violence-related injuries and (c) what is the cost breakdown per year associated with the treatment of each of these injuries;
(2) (a) what is the number of fatalities as a result of injuries that have been recorded in each year, (b) what is the breakdown according to (i) road-traffic injuries and (ii) violence-related injuries, (c) how much has her Department spent each year to date on the treatment of injuries and (d) what is the breakdown according to the different categories mentioned in her reply?
1. [a] A review of Emergency Centre headcounts from the HECTIS system from 1 January 2022 to 13 July 2022 showed:
|
Trauma Category |
Proportion |
|
No Trauma |
75.49% |
|
Interpersonal Violence |
9.39% |
|
Accidental |
8.71% |
|
Road Traffic Accidents |
2.21% |
|
Self-Harm |
0.48% |
Approximately 25 % of visits to emergency centres using HECTIS, are due to trauma.
Following on from point above, If we estimate that 24.41 % of these headcounts are due to trauma:
From 2017-2019, we had an average headcount of 245 405. This number dropped significantly in 2020 due to the lockdown, and due to the limitation of alcohol sales during the lockdown. Please note that these data are estimates, and do not include trauma headcounts outside emergency centres and in the private sector.
[b] EC Headcount per injury-type:
[c] The Department will need to do research into the cost related to treating injuries for each of these years as the information is not readily available. The combined total tangible and intangible costs of alcohol harm to the economy were estimated at 10-12% of the 2009 gross domestic product (GDP). The tangible financial cost of harmful alcohol use alone was estimated at R37.9 billion, or 1.6% of the 2009 GDP. We must remember that these are estimations of the rand value in 2009 and would be significantly higher today [Matzopoulos et al., 2014]
However, Using HECTIS data from 5 Western Cape Hospitals, the Medical Research Council was able to model the cost of trauma to the Western Cape Department of Health in 2020 in 5 hospitals. This costing includes emergency centre visits, admissions to wards and ICU admissions.
|
Injury |
Total Cost |
|
Blunt force trauma |
R 314 354 829,61 |
|
Burns |
R 119 504 298,39 |
|
Stab |
R 53 756 374,03 |
|
Road Traffic Collisions |
R 122 339 500,03 |
|
Gunshot |
R 167 686 015,01 |
|
Poisoning/Self Harm |
R 152 816 540,08 |
|
Falls |
R 381 261 676,33 |
|
Gender-based and Sexual Violence |
R 22 165 936,93 |
|
TOTAL |
R 1 333 885 170,42 |
The above data is for 5 hospitals.
2. [a] [b]) Information sourced from Forensic Pathology Services for the period 2019/01/01 – 2022/07/31.
|
Fatal Injuries [Includes Homicide, Suicide, Accidental and Road Traffic Injury] |
Road Traffic Incident |
Homicide |
Suicide |
Accident |
Total Fatalities [All Circumstances] |
|
|
2019 |
7333 |
1431 |
4183 |
687 |
1032 |
11832 |
|
2020 |
6747 |
1138 |
4005 |
689 |
915 |
9963 |
|
2021 |
7537 |
1362 |
4237 |
822 |
1116 |
10911 |
|
2022 |
4508 |
843 |
2473 |
513 |
679 |
6360 |
