Hospital succeeds in blitz on drunks
As drunk patients reeled into Wellington Hospital’s emergency department on New Year’s Eve, their boozed families and friends were screened with a breathalyser.
The initiative – in which people accompanying patients were breathalysed before entering the department – was so successful the hospital’s emergency department specialist Paul Quigley said it was ‘‘quite likely’’ it would be used again’’.
This would likely happen again for nights of bigdrinking events such as All Black tests and the Wellington Sevens.
‘‘[On the nights of previous big events] we just got inundated with all their hangers-on coming in and they were intoxicated as well.’’
Between midnight and 8am on January 1, 46 people came to the emergency department and most of them were drunk.
At one point, 32 out of 40 patients there were drunk and while all of them were allowed in, those accompanying them were allowed into the clinical area only if they passed a breathalyser test in the triage area.
Those who failed were allowed to wait in the waiting room but many decided to go home or go out partying again.
‘‘The waiting room was empty.’’
Staff used the New Zealand legal drink-drive limit for drivers aged 20 years.
Those with between 250 micrograms (mcg) and 400mcg – the level at which drivers are banned from driving for 12 hours and get a fine and demerit points – were allowed in on a discretionary basis.
Those over 400mcg – where drivers would face a disqualification in courts – were not allowed in.
But there was some wriggle room for cases such as a single caregiver who was technically too drunk to enter ED but would have been allowed in if they could still walk and talk normally and act appropriately.
Feedback was so positive from staff and even those denied entry that it would likely be done again, Quigley said.
‘‘We didn’t get overcrowded with people using it like a nightclub.’’
Hospital staff used a Drager breath alcohol measuring device, the same as that used by police, to measure people’s intoxication.
Drunkenness at Wellington Hospital’s ED has been a long-running issue and there have been cases of drunk friends or family of patients getting into fights with other drunk support people.
In February 2015, the hospital’s emergency department, in an effort an effort to siphon off the drunks and free up staff for other patients, became the first in New Zealand to breath-test patients.
At the time Quigley said the department had previously checked patients’ intoxication by blood tests, which were invasive, often required patient consent, and could be performed only once.
‘‘Some of these patients can be pretty out of control. You are waving around a needle and they are thrashing about. It’s not easy.’’
About 25 grossly intoxicated people turned up at Wellington Hospital emergency department every weekend, he said. - Fairfax NZ