I was flabbergasted when I read that The Royal Society for The Prevention of Accidents (ROSPA) estimates accidents in the home cost the UK around £45 billion pounds a year. That’s a lot of money and means a lot of people must be sustaining injuries as a result of accidents in their own homes or in other peoples homes.
ROSPAs latest figures show that 2.7 million people sustain injuries that require hospital treatment, as a result of accidents in the home, each year. ROSPA estimates each person injured in the home costs the UK £16,900 in hospital fees, time off work and benefits.
The number of accidents in the home has not reduced in recent years it has almost doubled. When ROSPA investigated accidents in the home in 1996 the estimated cost to the UK was £25.62 billion. Shockingly, the current figure of £45 billion does not even include the additional costs of £4,000 tragic deaths that are caused every year because of accidents in the home.
I think safety in the home is an issue that needs to be taken seriously, more needs to be done to stop the number of accidents in the home increasing and to prevent accidents in the home occurring in the first place. Even if a small proportion of accidents in the home could be prevented, the UK could save a lot of money and individuals and their families could be saved from a lot of pain, heartache and suffering.
