The Organisation of Fracture Clinics

The need for Fracture Clinics is universally acknowledged, but there is considerable difference of opinion as to what type of clinic should be established. There can be no doubt that the treatment of fractures is a branch of surgery that has lagged sadly behind in the general progress that has marked the last fifty years. It might be supposed that the treatment of fractures in the hands of the acknowledged expert should show a quite remarkable lessening of the period of incapacity for work that follows industrial injuries but, surprisingly and unfortunately, the figures are not borne out entirely by an impartial scrutiny of very large numbers of cases. The figures published in the British Medical Association fracture report were certainly impressive but they will not bear the careful scrutiny of the actuary, who must have exactly parallel cases for comparison.