Hospital’s ‘unprecedented demand’ link with council cuts in Dudley
Dudley Council cuts may have caused a spike in hospital admissions during the last cold snap, councillors have been told.
A possible link between removal of grit bins by the authority and exceptional numbers of injuries treated at Russells Hall Hospital was highlighted at a meeting of the council’s Social Care and Wellbeing Scrutiny Committee on January 19.
Cllr Karen Westwood told the meeting she had worked at the hospital since 1997 had ‘never known anything like it’.
Cllr Westwood said: “Last week, following the inclement weather all the trauma and orthopaedic surgeons I work with are in agreement that what we dealt with was absolutely unprecedented.
“Last Wednesday had five theatres all day completely devoted to trauma orthopaedics alone, that meant four theatres had to cancel full day elective lists.
“That was all due to people coming in through A&E, all of them were slips on ice in the snow.”
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Cllr Westwood added evidence was still being collated and a full audit was under way but, as she spoke, she was aware there had been 64 admissions through A&E in the 48 hours after the first snowfall and 47 will probably need surgery.
She added: “I was asked to raise the question, we are wondering, with the link with grit bins being removed, we have got evidence all these patients came in because they slipped on ice.
“For people in their early 40s to come in with broken hips is very rare.
“This is coming from consultant surgeons at the local hospital, they were quite concerned.”
Cllr Andrea Goddard, Dudley cabinet member for adult social care and public health, pointed out grit bins were not controlled by the public health directorate.
Cllr Goddard said: “Perhaps this is something within adult social care, we are looking at a cold weather framework into future years and we can re-evaluate falls.
“I would like to have the data so we can look at it properly.”
Speaking after the meeting, the council’s deputy leader, Cllr Paul Bradley, said: “The forces of nature are what they are, we can’t stop the snow falling but what we can do is alleviate the problems.
“With regard to grit bins we are going to have a full review with public consultation so the public can have their say on where specific grit bins were and their experiences when they did not have the grit or sodium chloride on the road.”
Cllr Bradley conceded the first review into grit bins in May 2025, as part of the council’s 2025/26 budget, “potentially went too far”.
He added: “The grit bins that are still in place will be refilled within the next couple of weeks.”
During the May 2025 review council officers identified around 500 grit bins for removal, either because they were on main gritting routes or because they were not being used.
