In the lead up to the festive season and beyond, the peak body for emergency medicine in New Zealand has called on revellers to know their limits when it comes to drinking, as a new survey exposes the true extent of alcohol abuse.
A snapshot survey of 20 emergency departments across the country at 2am Sunday, December 16 found one-in-six patients had alcohol-related presentations (in Australia, the figure was one-in-seven). This compares to numbers of one-in-four to one-in-eight in previous surveys so the problem has not improved.
“The impact of alcohol-related presentations on ED functioning, ED clinical staff and other patients attending EDs cannot be overstated,” Australasian College for Emergency Medicine (ACEM) President-Elect Dr John Bonning, a Waikato emergency doctor, said.
Dr Bonning said it was not only the festive season that causes a flurry of alcohol-related presentations. “Crate Day, for example, caused chaos,” he said.
Alcohol-related harm presentations to emergency departments include injuries related to assaults, motor-vehicle crashes and violence resulting in soft tissue injury, cuts and fractures. Other attendances relate to acute intoxication leading to vomiting, unconsciousness, and alcohol-attributed mental health presentations. Intoxicated patients take significant resources away from those who could be considered as more deserving such as the elderly and children, often in the middle of the night when resources are at a nadir.
“We need to get serious about the harm we are doing to ourselves, family, friends and communities,” Dr Bonning said. “Let’s think about the productivity lost in terms of work of those who come to grief as a result of alcohol – you can be off work for weeks to months.
“That’s why we need to consider the wider health, social and economic impacts of alcohol harm.”
Background
ACEM is the peak body for emergency medicine in New Zealand and Australia, responsible for training emergency physicians and advancement of professional standards. www.acem.org.au
Contact
Andre Khoury
ACEM Public Affairs Manager
+61 3 8679 8813
+61 4 98 068 023
[email protected]