Figures reveal alarming trends in Kiwis’ drinking habits

Hazardous drinking rates jumped over the Covid-19 lockdown last year, says Alcohol Healthwatch executive director Dr Nicki Jackson.

Her claims are backed up by the Ministry of Health’s data on emergency department attendances.

The number of ED visits in May 2020 was higher by 200 visits than a year earlier, with roughly 400 more visits in both June and July.

“Twenty per cent of New Zealanders increased their consumption at level 4 lockdown, at level 1 that reduced to about 14 per cent,” Jackson said. “Not everyone who drank heavily over lockdown sustained that, which was great, but for Maori, 22 per cent drank more during lockdown and 22 per cent drank more after than before.”

The lockdown hike is part of a wider concern over hospital emergency departments being inundated with boozy Kiwis, with a leading doctor saying the true number is even higher than the ministry’s data.

According to the ministry, alcoholrelated visits are recorded by DHBs using a system called the “Alcohol Red Flag”. It was first used in 2015/16 by five DHBs, of which four reported events, but more DHBs have since started to use it, the ministry says.

Data shows the summer months are especially busy for alcoholrelated ED visits. December was the busiest month last year, with 3491 reported, but Dr John Bonning says the real number is much higher.

The Australasian College for Emergency Medicine president says ED visits are roughly more than a million a year in NZ. “I would suggest there is a higher impact of alcohol than is indicated by [the] data.”

The ministry, which provided the data under the Official Information Act, said the visits — including those admitted to hospital and those not — “should be interpreted with caution”.

Not all the DHBs record ED visits the same way and so results in different parts of the country vary.

Bonning says the impact of alcohol on EDs may not be measured as accurately as possible because staff are often busy with other tasks.

In November, a college survey suggested binge drinking is a bigger issue in NZ than in Australia, with local EDs busier than in Australia.

At 2am on December 21, 2019, 16 per cent of patients were receiving alcohol-related treatment in NZ; in Australia it was 13 per cent.

Jackson says while those aged under 24 were drinking less there was “a phenomenal” increase in drinking among older generations.

However, it’s still young people who find themselves visiting EDs for alcohol-related issues, Bonning says.

And he doesn’t mince his words: “They put their lives at risk . . . They can choke on their own vomit, often vomit in the emergency department, vomit on staff, and they’re frequently abusive and difficult to manage.

“If you end up in an ED as a result of drinking, you are harming not only yourself but others and using valuable health care resources.”

To best prevent long-term alcoholrelated health issues, women are advised to consume no more than 10 standard drinks each week and men no more than 15.