Child accident data: accessible and available?

The accessibility, availability and content of health service data on accidental injuries occurring in childhood was investigated. Death data, admission data and Accident and Emergency (A&E) data were examined. Considerable problems were experienced with the availability of routine data, and the available information was found to be limited by the nature and content of the data collected by computerized systems. Data were limited both in terms of providing information to the local Accident Prevention Working Group and for the monitoring of preventive activity. It was also determined that none of the data were being audited. It was concluded that there is a need for national agreement concerning both cause of injury coding and severity coding.