Hazardous drinking up during lockdown

AUCKLAND: Hazardous drinking rates jumped over the Covid19 lockdown last year, Alcohol Healthwatch executive director Dr Nicki Jackson says.

Her claims were backed up by Ministry of Health data on emergency department attendances.

The number of attendances in May 2020 was higher by 200 visits than a year earlier, and visits in both June and July were about 400 more.

‘‘Twenty percent of New Zealanders increased their consumption at Level 4 lockdown. At Level 1 that reduced to about 14%,’’ Dr Jackson said.

‘‘Not everyone who drank heavily over lockdown sustained that, which was great, but for Maori, 22% drank more during lockdown and 22% drank more after than before.’’

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

According to the ministry, alcoholrelated attendances are recorded by DHBs using a system called the ‘‘Alcohol Red Flag’’.

It was first used in 201516 by five district health boards, of which four reported events, but more DHBs have since started to use the system, the ministry says.

Data shows the summer months are especially busy for alcoholrelated attendances

The most attendances for one month last year were in December, when 3491 were reported. Australasian College for Emergency Medicine (ACEM) president Dr John Bonning said the real number was much higher.

Dr Bonning said total ED visits were about more than a million per annum in New Zealand.

‘‘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 attendances, ‘‘should be interpreted with caution’’.

Not all the district health boards recorded ED visits the same way and therefore results among different parts of the country varied.

In November, an ACEM survey suggested binge drinking was a bigger issue in New Zealand than across the Tasman.

At 2am on December 21, 2019, 16% of patients were receiving alcoholrelated treatment in New Zealand, compared with 13% in Australia.

❛ I would suggest there

is a higher impact of alcohol than is indicated

by [the] data