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Elgin tops the list of places for slips, trips and falls during ‘challenging’ winter conditions

There were dozens of casualties of falling in the recent cold snap across the north.

The IV30 postcode area covering Elgin has had the most people visiting hospital due to falls in January
The IV30 postcode area covering Elgin has had the most people visiting hospital due to falls in January

More than 40 people in Elgin visited hospital due to falls during the recent wintry weather.

Dozens of Elgin residents have gone to an accident department including for slips on icy roads and paths.

Since the start of the new year, new figures showed 470 people across NHS Grampian came a cropper.

Residents in the IV30 postcode area, which covers Elgin, was top of the list of locations where most people attended hospital in the recent cold snap.

Forres and Lossiemouth also made the “top” 20.

Top postcode areas for hospital visits

There were 48 hospital attendances from Elgin, compared to 43 from the AB24 area, 42 from AB15, 28 from AB12 and 25 from AB11.

The IV36 postcode (Forres) is 10th on the list with 18 attendances, while IV31 (Lossiemouth) is 15th with 11 attendances.

Since New Year’s Day, when there were 19 visits to hospitals across Grampian related to falls, the numbers have been consistently above 20 a day.

They reached a peak of 64 on January 7, and have largely been in the 30s and 40s since last week.

Figures from A&E departments at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary, Royal Aberdeen Children’s Hospital and Dr Gray’s in Elgin showed that 43 casualties were seen on Monday and 27 on Tuesday.

Since January 1, a total of 114 people have visited Dr Gray’s after falls.

Elgin was affected by heavy snow in early January. Image Jason Hedges/DC Thomson

The figures cover all falls and slips, including those caused by the slippery conditions.

They show attendances at emergency departments, not necessarily admissions to hospitals.

They also refer to where the person lives, not necessarily where they fell, or which hospital they attended.

Prolonged wintry conditions ‘a challenge’

A Moray Council spokesewoman said: “Given the IV30 area is our largest populated area there will be correlation to the numbers of people impacted by adverse weather.

“Clearly, we encourage everyone to take care in icy conditions but recognise that the recent prolonged period of wintry weather was challenging for many of us as we returned to work and school.

“Throughout this time our winter maintenance teams continued ploughing and gritting in line with our winter service operational plan.

“This details our priority routes for road and footway treatment, as agreed by council.”

Over the last two weeks road temperatures in Moray reached as low as -12.6 degrees.

The council used 3,624 tonnes of salt, treated 9,274 miles of road over 776 hours and carried out 329 winter actions.

Moray saw temperatures drop to -12.6 degrees this month. Image jason Hedges/DC Thomson

The spokeswoman added: “While we would like to be able to treat every road and every pavement in Moray continuously, the finite resources we have means we need to prioritise where and when they are deployed.

“We’ll continue to refill local grit bins as we recover from the recent cold spell, ready to tackle future snow and ice conditions.”

Since the New Year, the north-east has faced multiple weather warnings for snow and ice.

Various areas were left in a treacherous condition for more than a week.

Can walking like a penguin help?

We previously revealed scores of people had been taken to hospital in Aberdeen as a result of slips, trips and falls.

NHS Grampian urged residents to “walk like a penguin” to navigate the tricky conditions brought on by the thaw.

The health board also recommended that people postpone leaving their home “for a little while”.

In addition, it asked residents to grit paths and driveways to help speed up defrosting.

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