Cash-strapped Croydon Council could turn to local health services to help pay for gritting the borough’s roads in icy weather.

Around three times as many casualties with fractures, dislocations and sprains were admitted to the hospital’s accident and emergency department on December 21, compared to an equivalent non-icy Monday in 2008.

The surge in injuries caused during freezing weather has persuaded council chief executive Jon Rouse to approach the PCT and his Mayday Hospital counterpart, Nick Hulme, to discuss bearing the cost of making the roads safe.

A few inches of snow brought Croydon to a standstill just before Christmas as roads froze over and motorists struggled with icy conditions, despite the council’s gritting vehicles covering 745 miles between them in the first 24 hours.

Many people complained of grit bins running low throughout the borough, although a council spokesman said the hundreds of bins provided by the authority were topped up in advance and refilled regularly during the bad weather.

Croydon Central MP Andrew Pelling praised the decision to consult health services about chipping in funds as “preventative medicine”, which would save both parties money in the long term by protecting residents from injury.

He said: “It strikes me as being a lack of joined-up government not to spend any money on a bit of grit, and spend some thinking and time on how you get that grit on to the pavement.

“It costs so much, not just in terms of misery people face, but the cost of someone breaking their hip or people not going to work - it all affects money coming into the exchequer.

“I guess if you had a two-week bad cold snap it could be the equivalent of 200 extra fractures.

“I think that both Nick Hulme and Jon Rouse are enterprising, dynamic chief executives and think they will get together to do this.”

A Mayday Hospital spokeswoman confirmed the two chief executives hold regular meetings, but said the matter had not yet been brought up.