Bank holiday weekends are the ideal time to make a start on those home improvement jobs you never get around to doing. However, the NHS has warned homeowners to be careful when giving their home an update over the upcoming three-day weekend, as emergency services see thousands of accidents every year as a result of DIY injuries.
The last 12 months have resulted in 4,800 hospital admissions thanks to wounds caused by power tools, which is a seven per cent increase from the year before when medical staff treated 4,446 people.
This is on top of the 6,372 cases of people falling from a ladder and over 500 admissions of people being injured by their lawnmower.
As a result of this, NHS national clinical advisor for A&E Dr Cliff Man warned DIY enthusiasts to be careful so they do not end up in hospital.
“While there are plenty of ways to come a cropper with your DIY, fortunately, there are also plenty of places to get help from the NHS this bank holiday,” he stated, advising people to consider urgent treatment centres, GP practices and high street pharmacies as alternatives to A&E.
This will help reduce the number of people using emergency services and cut down on the pressure on hospital staff, Dr Man said.
His advice was aimed at both men and women; however, statistics show guys are more likely to injure themselves than females.
Hospital consultants saw 7,400 men harmed by a lawnmower or power tool in the year leading to March 2019, and just 1,200 women. What’s more, the number of men who had fallen from a ladder and needed medical help from a consultant was four times more than ladies (5,000 compared with 1,260).
This is despite more and more women getting involved in DIY projects than previous generations.
Indeed, according to Yale’s recent survey, ladies between 18 and 30 years old are more hands-on with home improvement tasks than their mothers or grandmothers. Findings recently showed 60 per cent of women in this age group have painted rooms in the last three years, reported the Mirror.
It also found 40 per cent were happy to hang blinds or curtains while just 13 per cent of their grandmothers would have been, and nearly half regularly assemble furniture in comparison with 28 per cent of earlier generations.
Marketing manager for Yale Stephen Roberts told the newspaper: “Many younger women don’t remember their grandmothers even going as far as unclogging a toilet or planting a tree.”
Those who are slipping on their overalls this bank holiday weekend to start on a renovation project or give their home a lick of paint need to take the appropriate precautions to keep themselves safe while doing so.
However, if you find a DIY job becomes too challenging or is taking too long to complete, giving professional painters and decorators in Surrey a call to come and help is always a good idea. Handling the larger jobs, we can leave you to complete the smaller tasks – or even just to enjoy the extra day off work this weekend.