Alcohol to blame for quarter of emergency room visits
NewsHub 21 December 2016
Family First Comment: It’s time for politicians to stop sitting on their hands and bowing down to the alcohol lobby as they did last year when the laws were reviewed.
Emergency room doctors are calling for changes to alcohol laws following a survey that’s found nearly one in four emergency department (ED) patients are there because of booze.
A snapshot of every New Zealand emergency department by the Australasian College for Emergency Medicine has found a quarter of patients were there because of alcohol-related issues.
That compares to one in seven when the survey was conducted last year.
Waikato Hospital emergency department clinical director John Bonning said the results were ” absolutely diabolical”.
“The level of harm these people cause to their own health is bad enough but they also divert time and resources from other patients, including older people and young children,” he said.
“They put an undue strain on our emergency departments and can be rude, aggressive, or – in the worst circumstances – even violent towards doctors and nurses.”
READ MORE: http://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2016/12/alcohol-to-blame-for-quarter-of-emergency-room-visits.html
