One-in-eight emergency dept patients affected by alcohol

One-in-eight patients in NZ emergency departments affected by alcohol

The peak body for emergency medicine in Australia and New Zealand has conducted its 4th annual Alcohol Harm Snapshot Survey at 2am (local time) Saturday 16 December.

Across 18 New Zealand emergency departments one-in-eight patients had alcohol related presentations, an improvement from last year’s result of one-in-four.

“While it is great to see a significant improvement on last year’s one-in-four result there is clearly still a problem,” says Australasian College for Emergency Medicine (ACEM) New Zealand Faculty Chair Dr John Bonning.

“Caring for people with what could be described as self-inflicted harm impacts on our ability to look after other people in ED, the elderly, the very young.”

ACEM President Dr Simon Judkins added, “These results continue to paint a worrying picture of the impact of alcohol in Australian and New Zealand health systems.”

“What concerns me most is that ACEM has highlighted this problem for quite some time, and yet we continue to see alcohol advertising at sporting events, leaders across many public spheres promoting alcohol excess as an acceptable community standard, an ongoing neglect of legislation to impact this issue and a lack of investment in providing help to those affected.”

ACEM supports the Health Promotion Agency’s (HPA) low risk alcohol consumption guidelines, which aim to help you make an informed choice and help keep your risk of alcohol-related accidents, injuries, diseases and death low.

Background

ACEM was recently awarded a VicHealth award for its work in the prevention of alcohol related har

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