DOCTORS want revellers to go easy on the grog this Australia Day long weekend.
St George Hospital emergency department senior staff specialist Peter Grant said traumatic injury resulting from "high-spirited, often alcohol-fuelled" risk taking activity increased on the public holiday.
"A few extra drinks can make the difference between having a great night out or ending up in a police cell, the emergency department (ED), or worse," Dr Grant said.
Alcohol was a factor in up to 10 per cent of emergency presentations at St George during peak times over Christmas and the new year.
It leads to about 66 assaults, 28 emergency department presentations, 142 hospitalisations and three deaths in NSW every day.
"While intoxication is less of an issue for St George and Sutherland EDs when compared with inner city departments, such patients can at times be uncooperative, abusive, difficult to assess, and present significant challenges for staff, as well as being very time consuming to manage," Dr Grant said.
"Most patients are male, from a wide variety of age groups, and tend to present with the consequences of intoxication such as falls causing fractures and head injuries, assaults and motor vehicle accidents."
At 2am on Saturday, December 13, the Australasian College of Emergency Medicine took a snapshot survey of 92 emergency departments across Australia.
It found that at one in seven patients were in emergency because of their harmful use of alcohol. In some EDs the figure was as high as one in three.
Sutherland Shire has the highest rate of alcohol-related assault in southern Sydney.
NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research figures show between October 13 and September 14, 2014, there were 189 alcohol-related assaults for 100,000 of population.
Kogarah recorded 163.9 alcohol-related assaults for 100,000 of population for the period; 135.9 for Rockdale, and 123.1 for Hurstville.
Based on the figures, the two-year trend in alcohol-related assaults in St George and the shire is classified as "stable".
SOME IMPROVEMENT
The National Alliance for Action on Alcohol in January named NSW as the most improved jurisdiction for government alcohol policy based on a package of government measures, including 1.30am city lockouts and a statewide 10pm closing time for all bottle shops.
Australian Medical Association president, Associate Professor Brian Owler, told members last year that the measures were not a remedy for society’s ‘‘deep-seated and complex relationship with alcohol’’.
Do you think many people drink to get drunk?
