RoSPA Press Office : Press Release

November 22, 2007
INVEST NHS UNDERSPEND IN ACCIDENT PREVENTION - RoSPA

RoSPA today called on the Government to pay for accident prevention work from some of the reported £1.8billion underspent on the NHS - because it would result in saving even more money.

Tom Mullarkey, Chief Executive of the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents, said: “It would be one of the soundest investments the Government could make.

“We are repeatedly told resources are too limited for cash to be made available for accident prevention, but now we learn the Department of Health is reporting a massive surplus for the NHS.

“It is far cheaper to prevent accidents than to have to spend vast amounts of money treating people in hospital. Several recent small-scale accident prevention projects have returned savings of between three times and five times the cost of the projects. With the funds to scale up these initiatives, the savings would be very significant.

“So a relatively small investment in accident prevention work can pay huge dividends. If the Government wants to provide more money for healthcare it could help itself by funding work which prevents accidents. Now that the Government can afford it, our message is quite simply ‘Invest to Save’.

“In addition to the 250,000 people injured in road accidents, around 2.7 million go to hospital each year after accidents in the home and another 2.8 million are hurt when they are engaged in leisure activities. Many of those accidents are preventable and so stopping them in the first place would not only save unnecessary death and suffering, it would be helping the NHS to balance its books even more effectively.”