Snow win no fee
It has been revealed that no win no fee claims could soar at the end of Christmas, as the rate of people injured have doubled.
Twice as many people as normal have attended A&E after falling and fracturing limbs due to the frosty and icy weather in the UK.
Bosses at Northampton General stated that the hospital had been swamped by patients with broken legs, arms and wrists, with 92 people treated for serious fractures in only five days during the worst of the conditions last week.
The service would commonly see around 50 severe fractures during that time, but this 2009, where many paths resembled what some have called ‘ice rinks’ - personal injury is high.
The department usually treats an average of 175 people a day but over the past week doctors in A&E have been treating around 200 patients every day.
The hospital said it had been “very busy” but staff had coped well, while preparing themselves for another surge in the number of patients after Christmas.
A hospital spokesman stated: “It has almost doubled but the statistics do not show how many people came in purely because of the snow and ice.
“Equally, on a normal weekend we would get a number of sporting injuries and most of the sport was cancelled last weekend because of the weather.”
The hospital said the total number of people attending A&E had also gone up since the start of the Arctic-like conditions.
They added: “The number of people we see normally tails off over the festive period because people don't want to be in hospital at Christmas. They tend to wait until the New Year when they come in. We are still meeting targets in A&E but we have obviously been very busy.”
Road to snowhere
The county's road network has generally coped well with the bitter weather, with very few traffic-related problems, but a number of complaints have been made about the treacherous states of some pavements and car parks.
A solicitor from one local no win no fee law firm, said he had yet to be contacted by anyone wanting to make a compensation claim but was expecting a wave of civil actions to be launched against local authorities in the New Year.
He stated: “People will claim without a doubt. It may well be that in the run-up to Christmas people don't contact us but instead will call us in the New Year.”
However, one pensioner, aged 80, from Spinney Hill, who may want to make a claim, said a number of town centre car parks resembled ice rinks and normal parking rates should be abolished because of the conditions.
He commented: “The council should waive the charge and if they want some revenue, hire out ice skates as that's the only safe way to get around.”
In Ringstead, Northamptonshire, two men were feared dead after falling into an ice-covered lake. Last night police pulled one body from Brightwell Lake.
Updated on 03/01/2010