People with booze-related injuries are clogging up hospital emergency departments, the Alcohol Advisory Council's "Working Together" conference was told yesterday.
But how that issue might be affecting Wanganui Hospital's emergency department is not known.
The significant impact of alcohol on injuries presented to the Hawke's Bay Regional Hospital emergency department during a
study in May and again in December last year was revealing.
During the two-month study all injury cases presented (within 48 hours) were assessed for the likelihood that alcohol was a contributing factor.
But, at this stage, gathering booze-related injury data is not on the radar in Wanganui Hospital's emergency department.
Very few other emergency departments in the country gathered those data, either.
Wanganui Hospital manager Jeanette Black said alcohol-related injury data was not recorded, mainly because the impact on workload was considerable, although other issues such as privacy may also be a factor.
She was unaware of any proposals to instigate recording procedures in Wanganui.
"If there was a national study launched we would probably be happy to be a part of it, but at the moment there are no plans to launch our own study," Mrs Black said.
Hawke's Bay Hospital emergency department nurses used an intoxication assessment checklist based on the Alco link used by New Zealand police, asked about alcohol consumption and recorded details about the cause and location of the injury as well as the usual clinical details.
Dr Caroline McElnay, director of Population Health at the Hawke's Bay District Health Board, told the conference the December data showed that on average 24.6 percent of injuries presented it was likely, or highly likely, that alcohol was a contributing factor. This proportion varied with time and day of the week reaching 64 percent of all injury presentations between midnight and 6am.
This, compared with results from the May data, showed that, on average, 18.2 percent could be attributed to alcohol, reaching 67 percent between midnight and 6am.
The data also showed the role of violence in alcohol-related injuries.
Dr McElnay said the impact of alcohol-related injuries on workload was considerable.
Alac senior communications adviser Lynne Walsh said yesterday it appeared very few emergency departments around the country recorded alcohol-related injury figures. She knew of only Christchurch, Wellington and Hawke's Bay.
Alac, however, said hospital emergency departments needed to record alcohol-related admissions to stem the flow of injuries or accidents caused by booze.
"We know anecdotally that alcohol-related admissions figure highly in the work of emergency departments,' Alac chief executive Gerard Vaughan said.
"However, only a small number of departments ask whether alcohol has been a factor or are keeping figures. If we can get accurate figures to demonstrate the size of the problem, we can then see how different interventions both environmentally and within the hospital systems can help reduce the problem.'
People with booze-related injuries are clogging up hospital emergency departments, the Alcohol Advisory Council's "Working Together" conference was told yesterday.
But how that issue might be affecting Wanganui Hospital's emergency department is not known.
The significant impact of alcohol on injuries presented to the Hawke's Bay Regional Hospital emergency department during a
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