FRONTLINE Ballarat emergency health workers are concerned a dangerous drinking culture is too often over-looked and normalised. But alcohol-related treatment is creating a strain on this city’s paramedics and hospital emergency departments that far outstripped patient use of harder drugs, like ice.
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Ballarat Health Services BASE Hospital clinical director of emergency Andrew Crellin said primary diagnosis records were not always a real measure for alcohol-related cases his staff attend. A broken ankle from a tipsy stumble, injuries from domestic violence, blows from street assaults – these tended to be reported for their immediate injury nature.
“We’re here to deal with emergencies,” Dr Crellin said. “It is creating a strain, particularly in the area that these are not really necessary presentations. They could have been avoided.
“Go out for fun, but go out to have a good night that ends up at home safe in your own bed, not somewhere like the emergency department.”
Dr Crellin said amphetamine patients were still a big issue and generally tied up multiple staff for longer periods, but alcohol and prescription drugs were still at the forefront of alcohol and drug cases across the wider health domain.
Ambulance Employees Association state secretary Steve McGhie said paramedics were increasingly concerned on cases stemming from alcohol misuse and abuse. Mr McGhie said alcohol was a huge issue often masked in statistics and fobbed downplayed culturally, yet should be viewed as seriously an issue as drugs.
“People are drinking more and starting earlier and younger in their introduction to alcohol,” Mr McGhie said. “This is a major health concern, a major health cost that ties up many ambulances and takes away from others that need to be treated.”
Intoxication is causing more ambulance related call-outs than illegal drugs like heroin and ice in Ballarat, new data has shown, in the past year. Ballarat paramedics attended 251 patients last year compared with 10 heroin-related calls and 28 for all amphetamines.
Ballarat Community Health chief executive officer Robyn Reeve said there was a lot of community hysteria about ice, which caused awful health and relationship issues. In contrast, extensive alcohol-related problems – like slow-onset liver and brain damage – were largely unrecognised by Australians because alcohol was so acceptable.
“A lot of people aren’t actually aware what constitutes risky drinking. You often hear people say they’ll have a couple of bottles of red after work on a Friday night...it’s normalised,” Ms Reeve said. "This is a complex issue.”
Alcohol-related emergency treatment in Ballarat follows a state trend, according to a Turning Point report.
