This is the seventh in our series of short pieces by those who deal with the consequences of alcohol misuse every day.
Emergency Medicine Specialist and Clinical Toxicologist, Wellington Regional Hospital.
Paul Quigley likes a beer. In fact, he’s a qualified beer taster. “I’m definitely not into prohibition.”
But he is sick of the strain drunk Kiwis put on the country’s hospital emergency department resources every weekend. Every Friday and Saturday night, the workload at ED at Wellington Hospital doubles as a direct result of alcohol-related injury and illness. The ward is over-run with young drinkers who have wet themselves, soiled themselves, fallen over and cut their heads. Some are in danger of choking on their own vomit and have to be closely monitored all night.
“They tie up a lot of nursing staff.”
Others, who may have broken bones or smashed-up faces after an alcohol-related assault, stalk around the ward thinking they need treatment more than anyone else, intimidating those who have come in for heart attacks, asthma or with sick children. Worryingly, some patients have been known to leave ED without being seen because of the frightening atmosphere the drunk patients create.
And then there are the alcohol-related car crashes. One in five fatalities on New Zealand roads each year is in an alcohol-related crash – about 130 deaths. The Ministry of Transport says, for every 100 alcohol or drug-impaired drivers who die, about 80 passengers and sober road users die with them.
Quigley says legal requirements mean ED staff have to hold on to drunk patients – sometimes requiring physical restraint and sedation – until they sober up or can be released into the care of someone sober. Unfortunately, with the drinkers who are just 14 or 15, their parents are often too drunk themselves to come and collect their children (a family environment of heavy drinking is one of the risk factors for a teen’s early drinking).
“In that very young group, that’s often the way.”
And when they sober up (deemed to be when they get down to the drink-drive alcohol limit or pass a variety of physical tests such as putting a finger to their nose), staff are often frustrated by the distinct lack of remorse among the patients who have just monopolised their time for an entire nightshift.
“There’s no regret.” Some of the younger ones are boastful. Even the adults in their 30s and 40s, who are a noticeable presence on the weekends of events such as the Martinborough Food and Wine Festival and the Trentham Races, don’t show any embarrassment over their lack of self control.
“We don’t find it funny,” Quigley says. ED staff work tight skeleton shifts on the weekend evenings because of funding and union restrictions.
And the impact of alcohol drags into the weekend afternoons as well. Quigley says Wellington Regional Hospital is looking at collating New Zealand-based research on hangovers. Overseas research suggests hangovers have a serious economic impact on weekend and Monday productivity. Quigley says emergency departments see a lot of sports and work injuries on Saturdays and Sundays among people who are hungover.
Quigley says alcohol is no longer a treat. It is cheap and easily available. He says young people buy a bottle of Jim Beam and a very small bottle of Coke, mix it and drink it at home so they are intoxicated before they hit town.
The ED doctor says the biggest impact in changing New Zealand’s drinking habits will come from curtailing off-licence supplies, increasing prices and reducing the blood-alcohol limit from 80mg of alcohol per 100ml of blood down to 50mg.
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