If you want to avoid busy A&E units then you should shun the trampoline, discourage the kids from putting Lego up their nose, and be rather more careful getting something out of the loft.

That is the advice of the leader of Britain’s emergency medicine doctors, Dr Cliff Mann, who wants to highlight activities such as horse riding, mountain biking and even DIY, which are more dangerous than you might think.

Improvements in road safety and workplaces mean that homes and leisure pursuits now cause far more injuries and deaths – 1,000 per month – than car crashes and industrial accidents, according to Mann, president of the College of Emergency Medicine.

Of the 22 million people a year who attend A&E, about seven million do so as a result of an accident. Overall, accidents cost A&E units about £1bn a year.

“The public don’t appreciate the risk in everyday situations. If you ask them they would probably say that they’re more likely to die either on the roads or at work than at home. Both are untrue,” said Mann, who is keen to ease the heavy burden on the NHS from accidents.

by Denis Campbell