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NZ's drinking culture placing burden on emergency departments, new study finds

October 25, 2019

Report author Bridget Kool joined Breakfast to discuss the findings.

The burden of New Zealand’s drinking culture on hospital emergency departments has revealed a problematic relationship with alcohol, new research published today in the New Zealand Medical Journal shows.

At peak times, at least 12 per cent of emergency department presentations at Auckland City Hospital are there as a result of harmful alcohol use, University of Auckland's Bridget Kool found.

She examined 12 months of electronic patient records of adult presentations to the hospital’s emergency department.

“This study has shown us some concerns that around 5000 patients a year to that emergency department, that sees normally around 77,000 patients, alcohol has played a role in that presentation,” Ms Kool told TVNZ1’s Breakfast this morning.

“It’s likely to be an underestimate, because we’re relying on staff to ask the question, and they’ve got other priorities that may mean that the question isn’t systematically asked. 

“It’s given us a benchmark, and it really does highlight this enormous burden that it places on emergency department staff.”

Evenings, weekends and the summer period are the busiest times for emergency departments, she said.

“They’re very busy times, and staff are overburdened by the patients who are drunk,” she said. “Not only are they a challenge to be assessed because they’re drinking and their drunk state may mask symptoms, but they’re also distracting for other patients, disturbing for other patients who have to put up with loud and drunk and aggressive patients, and they put the staff at risk.

“They often have to have increased security to look after these patients. They’re more likely to discharge themselves, and to need to have extra support around to make sure they don’t harm themselves or harm others while they’re there.”

Watch the full interview in the video above.

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