South worst in binge-drinking stakes

Members of  the Dunedin Hospital emergency department team model the 'Say Yeah, Nah' T-shirts...
Members of the Dunedin Hospital emergency department team model the 'Say Yeah, Nah' T-shirts they are wearing during the Project Ease Up campaign, which targets hazardous drinking behaviour. Photo by Brenda Harwood

Dunedin has been urged to wake up to the dangers of binge boozing after a new report found the South has the highest rate of hazardous drinking in the country.

At the same time, the city council has been urged to consider a wide-ranging report which found Dunedin Hospital's emergency department dealt with more than 1400 alcohol-related presentations last year.

Public Health South's Impact of Alcohol report also found about 7% - or more than 90 - of those presentations were of people too young to legally drink.

The report was prepared to help councils as they develop their alcohol policies. It was released as the Southern District Health Board begins its campaign to counteract hazardous drinking and the Otago University Students' Association its campaign against drinking games.

Soon after the report was released, health advocates told The Star that alcohol continued to have a significant impact on city health - and on the health service's resources.

They also backed the health board's call for councils to restrict on-licenses from selling alcohol after 2am, and off-licenses from selling outside 8am-10pm.

The report found 25% of southern district residents were hazardous drinkers - and that their habit cost the board more than $1.4 million last year.

Alcohol was causally related to more than 60 medical conditions and about 100 deaths from chronic diseases and injuries a year in the region, medical officer of health Dr Marion Poore said.

Dunedin Hospital's emergency department dealt with more than 1400 alcohol-related presentations last year. Among them were 95 people suffering alcohol poisoning.

Associate charge nurse manager Kathy Jansen said alcohol was a problem ''across the board'', with people of all ages needing treatment for intoxication, injuries and alcohol-related illnesses.

''It isn't just young people coming in - we get many elderly people too, coming in after falls through alcohol,'' Mrs Jansen said.

Alcohol-related presentations put a lot of pressure on staff in terms of managing their treatment and behaviour.

The department had security protocols in place, but the disruption caused by intoxicated patients could be distressing for people who were very unwell, she said.

About 7% of people presenting with alcohol-related problems at the hospital were under the legal drinking age. All school-aged children were referred to a public health nurse for follow-up, with parents also often involved.

''We don't tend to get 'repeat offenders', so the system seems to be working,'' Mrs Jansen said.

It appeared most got their alcohol from their parents, or the parents of friends. Young drinkers were putting themselves at risk in terms of sexual health and could inhibit their own learning at school, she said.

Clinical adviser to the board's Sexual Abuse and Assessment Treatment Service Dr Jill McIlraith said alcohol remained ''the commonest drug used for drug-assisted rape''.

In about 60% of cases a significant amount of alcohol was involved, which made dealing with cases more difficult for clinicians, police and, ultimately, the courts.

''If the victim is struggling to remember exactly what happened, this can be an enormous problem,'' Dr McIlraith said.


SOUTHERN DHB REQUESTS TO COUNCILS
• Acknowledge that excessive or inappropriate consumption of alcohol is causing significant harm.

• Restrict trading hours of licensed premises. - Restrict on-licences from selling after 2am.- Restrict off-licence alcohol sales to 8am-10pm.

• Restrict the location, number and density of licensed premises.


KEY FINDINGS FROM THE IMPACT OF ALCOHOL REPORT
• About 25% of people in the Southern DHB district are hazardous drinkers - the highest proportion for any DHB area in New Zealand.

• Between 2008 and 2012, Dunedin showed the most significant increase in alcohol-poisoning cases in the Southern district, particularly in the 18 to 24-year-old age group.

• The number of alcohol-poisoning cases treated at Dunedin Hospital in 2012 was about three times as high as in 2008 - 95 in 2012 compared with 30 in 2008.

• Seven percent of people who went to Dunedin Hospital between January 24 and November 6, 2012, for alcohol-related problems were under the legal drinking age.

• There were 1412 presentations at Dunedin Hospital for alcohol-related reasons between January 24 and November 6, 2012. The presentations were made by 1114 individuals.

• In one case, a 43-year-old Dunedin man presented to the Dunedin Hospital emergency department for alcohol-related reasons eight times in the January 24 to November 6 period.

• Alcohol-related presentations cost the Southern District Health Board at least $1.4 million over a period of less than a year.

• There were 2579 alcohol-related presentations at Dunedin and Southland Hospitals in less than a year. Of these, 607 required hospital admission at a cost of at least $671,000 - an average cost per admission of about $1100. The remaining 1972 presentations not requiring admission cost at least $761,000 - an average cost per presentation of $385.

• Alcohol-related presentations occurred mostly between midnight and 4am in Dunedin. The level of presentations dropped significantly outside those times.


 

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