Table 5.

Estimation of additional cost and bed days taken up in our trust owing to wrist fractures in winter (assumes that half of the procedures would be K-wire fixation and half would be volar locking plate fixation)

Additional winter wrist fractures	4,667
Additional surgical procedures for wrist fractures 4,667 x 0.18 fixation rate	840
Mean length of hospital stay for wrist fracture surgery	0.95 days11
Additional winter bed days 840 x 0.95 days	798 days
K-wire fixation
Surgical time  420 x 53.57 minutes11	375 hours
Cost  420 x £3,384.7811	£1,421,607.60
Volar locking plate fixation
Surgical time  420 x 70.00 minutes11	490 hours
Cost  420 x £4,287.8911	£1,800,913.80
Total additional winter surgical cost	£3,222,521