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WRITTEN QUESTION TO THE MINISTER FOR HEALTH AND SOCIAL SERVICES BY DEPUTY G.C.L. BAUDAINS OF ST. CLEMENT
ANSWER TO BE TABLED ON TUESDAY 29th JANUARY 2008
Question
Would the Minister advise whether his Department keeps statistics relating to car whiplash injuries and, if so, would he give figures for each of the last five years?
Answer
I would like to advise the Deputy and, indeed other States Members, that injuries, illnesses and diseases are described in precise clinical terms. This is because clinicians can then use these very precise terms when they discuss individual cases – or indeed, the incidence of specific injuries, illnesses and diseases within a given community. The clinical data therefore, is not readily susceptible to lay terms such as "whiplash injuries". (A recent question from a States Member about "alcohol related injuries" was difficult to address for the same reason).
Having said this, a "whiplash" injury normally presents in the Accident and Emergency (A&E) Department as an injury to the spine, in particular to the cervical spine. Such an injury is coded as either a soft tissue injury to the cervical spine or a sprain, strain, ligament, tendon or muscle injury to the cervical spine.
From the table above, the closest match that can be made to the ill defined "whiplash" injury are the figures pertaining to cervical spine injuries as follows:-
Count of Attendance arrival date |
| Year |
| ||||
1st diagnostic code | Anatomical site code 1 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | Grand Total |
LOCAL SOFT TISSUE INJURY | CERVICAL SPINE | 16 | 15 | 10 | 5 | 4 | 50 |
| DORSAL SPINE | 1 | 1 |
| 4 | 2 | 8 |
| LUMBAR SPINE | 4 | 8 | 5 | 10 | 7 | 34 |
LOCAL SOFT TISSUE INJURY Total |
| 21 | 24 | 15 | 19 | 13 | 92 |
Sprain/Strain/Ligament Injury | CERVICAL SPINE | 12 | 10 | 11 | 17 | 13 | 63 |
| DORSAL SPINE | 1 | 3 |
| 6 | 1 | 11 |
| LUMBAR SPINE | 6 | 9 | 9 | 9 | 7 | 40 |
Sprain/Strain/Ligament Injury Total |
| 19 | 22 | 20 | 32 | 21 | 114 |
Tendon/Muscle Injury | CERVICAL SPINE | 1 | 1 |
| 1 | 1 | 4 |
| DORSAL SPINE |
| 2 |
|
|
| 2 |
| LUMBAR SPINE | 2 | 4 |
|
| 2 | 8 |
Tendon/Muscle Injury Total |
| 3 | 7 |
| 1 | 3 | 14 |
Grand Total |
| 43 | 53 | 35 | 52 | 37 | 220 |
2003:- 29 cases 2004:- 26 cases
2005:- 21 cases 2006:- 23 cases 2007:- 18 cases