subject: Flip-flops: Dangerous? Well, Slips And Trips Are Costing The Nhs A Fortune [print this page] The letters NHS should probably stand for Never Happy Spending and upon reading this latest raft of statistics, you can probably see why.
Up to 15 million people, most of them women, according to the article, wear flip-flops per day during the summer. The simple footwear is stylish, inexpensive (unless you can get designer ones: no doubt you can) and keeps those overworked feet ventilated while stomping about in hot conditions.
But whereas they were once restricted to the beach, now they seem to be everywhere. I recently tried walking around London for a day wearing just them (on my feet I mean: I was wearing other clothes as well. Otherwise I probably wouldn't be writing this, unless they gave me a laptop in prison) and it was a thoroughly uncomfortable experience all round. I thought it was just me not being able to fathom the operation of these unfamiliar devices.
By the time I returned home at the end of the day, I couldn't remember what I'd actually done for the last ten hours. I'd apparently been to Hyde Park and London Bridge. I don't remember any of this: all my concentration had gone into making sure I didn't catch the edge of my new footwear on the edge of a rogue paving stone and send myself hurtling through the air. Half a day of walking like a duck on the surface of the moon rewarded with me giant blisters all over my feet and aching tendons.But apparently I wasn't actually doing anything wrong.
Mike O'Neill, spokesman for the Society of Chiropodists and Podiatrists, says that all flip-floppers need to adapt the way they walk out of necessity. They tend to put pressure on the outside of their feet, rather than on their heel, which takes the brunt of the wearer's weight when they are sporting normal shoes. They also tend to grip the thong with their toes, as if they don't they will unintentionally launch the flip-flop into the face of a passing stranger. As well as this, Mr O'Neill says, ' The lack of support of the flip-flop also causes pain in the tendons on the inside of the foot and lower leg and can lead to shin splints.'
The wonderfully coincidentally-named Emma Supple, consultant podiatrist for shoe firm MBT, which obtained the figures, says, 'Women do need to be mindful that prolonged wearing on hard flat surfaces can cause considerable foot and leg problems' and recommended they wear comfortable, supple shoes to combat the problem.
All this can add up to the slow gestation of longer-term health problems, but there is also the omnipresent chance of a sudden injury occurring, as I'll discuss below.
Where the problems for the NHS come in is that the health service apparently spends GBP40m a year, or thereabouts, on treating people who have not heeded the above advice and have worn their favourite footwear for rather longer than is probably healthy.
In my industry, one wonders how many 'slip and trip' claims could arise from this obvious problem: either against the makers of the shoes or perhaps against local councils or authorities who fail to maintain their highways properly and arguably cause the slip or trip which results in injury.
Here, however, the line is blurred: say if somebody does suffer a trip which results a nasty injury: maybe a broken wrist, arm, or ankle, they could well be out of work for a while and will need to recoup their losses somehow: through a personal injury claim, for example. But how does one go about proving that your slip or trip wasn't your fault?
And how much of it was due to you; how much was due to the flip-flops; and how much was because of the surface you were walking along? Fault is the essence in these type of cases: whoever accepts the majority of the blame, or has it apportioned to them, is usually liable to pay the damages to the injured party. Of course, if the majority of the blame is assigned to the wearer of the flip-flops, then they won't get anything. Accidents, it has to be said, do sometimes just happen.
So it's a good idea to be careful, above all! The next time it's 30 degrees outside and you're gravitating towards the flip-flops in the wardrobe, maybe it'd be best if you wore some wellingtons instead. Sure, you'll get strange looks, and your feet won't exactly be fragrant, but you'll thank yourself in years to come.
by: Richard Craig
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