Injury Rates in Ontario - A Study

Since I'm in Windsor I thought I'd comment on an article I read in the Windsor Star on Emergency Room visits.

The Institute of Evaluative Studies has new statistics on emergency room use in Ontario in this .pdf file called General Description of Injuries in Ontario.

It's broken down into two categories injury-related emergency department visits and intentional-injury emergency room visits.

The Windsor Star used the report to show just injury-related ED visits to its local hospitals, which happen to be some of the lowest in the province. When you look at the rest of the statistics for Ontario, you can see that the counties that are higher are rural where there are shortages of doctors so going to the ED is part of the rural health-care regime.

The WS related it to the fact that Essex County's visits to the ED was because its a 'labour city' where health and safety prevent injury-related accidents. This might very well be true but without looking at a comparison of the rest of the province the statistics are down graded because of rural health care use of ED departments that are higher.

What the WS didn't report on was the high rate of self-injury visits to the ED department. This can be found on page 21 of the report.

The following are the top counties to have high incidences of intentional-injury to ED departments:

Number 1: Algoma, Kenora, Rainy River, Peterborough and Thunderbay with a rate 709 persons to every 100,000
Number 2: Cochrane, Hamilton, Muskoka and Nippising with rates between 591 to 709 to every 100,000
Number 3: Windsor rates on par with 19 other counties with rates between 433 to 491 to every 100,000
Number 4: London rates on par with 9 other counties with rates between 355 to 433 to every 100,000
Number 5: Ottawa & Toronto have some of the lowest self-injury visits to ED in the province at a rate of under 355 to every 100,000

I don't understand why Peterborough has some of the highest rates. Maybe they keep better data? What is it about this county that has increased suicide attempts?

Hamilton isn't surprising. This city has some of the worst health care I've ever experienced. As I've mentioned before, I had to come to Windsor to get medical treatment. It's a trusim that the doctor shortage is so severe that quality of health care is severely compromised. If the suicide rate is high it's because of the abusive support system itself which includes women's shelters, hospitals, psychiatrists and nurses in its mental health system not to mention the attitude of many of the doctors in the city, whom are mostly trained at McMaster.

Now Windsor. Windsor has a better grip on its mental health system it's more advanced than Hamilton's probably because of its proximity to Detroit, Michigan where alot of Windsorites get experience and the ability to sue is easier so there is less carelessness in treatment and diagnosis and because it's a labour city where supports for union members are stronger.

But the stats are still high. I wonder if the "labour city" is going to take credit for these rates being higher than the non-self-injury ED visits?