Bid to cut injuries caused by alcohol
HARTLEPOOL is pioneering a major new study which could change the way the town tackles its booze-fuelled problems.
Extra health staff have been taken on at the University Hospital of Hartlepool to quiz each patient who comes into the accident and emergency department.
The aim is to work out whether people are coming into hospital because of an injury caused by alcohol – and how it could be prevented in the future.
The study called the Cardiff Project was only started in May but it could help to shape everything from education on alcohol use to how the town is policed, depending on its results.
Kay Adeboye is the consultant in emergency medicine for the North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust.
He stressed: "It is not trying to label anyone. The main motive is to reduce alcohol-related violence."
The Cardiff Project involves A and E staff interviewing all patients to find out what their injury is and to ask other questions as well.
Such as:
l If you were assaulted, who carried out the attack?
l Was it someone known to you or unknown?
l Did it happen within licensed premises?
l Did it happen outdoors?
l Were weapons used?
A and E staff will also ask if the patient and the attacker were drinking and whether the incident was related to domestic violence.
Kay added: "It is an indication of where most of the injuries are coming from and what time of day it is happening at."
He said the project could help to determine whether extra policing would be needed in town in certain areas or at certain times.
"This is not an attempt to criminalise any individual. It is to help make sure that people can go out and have a drink and then get home safely without getting in to any trouble."
The data which is gathered – at both the Hartlepool and North Tees sites of the trust – will be shared with the Hartlepool Safer Partnership and the Stockton Safer Partnership.
The extra detail needed from A and E patients means extra staff are manning the department on certain nights of the week.
Kay estimated that, out of ten people coming to A and E, six or seven cases would be alcohol-related such as the victims of an attack.
He also admitted: "The people involved are getting younger and younger. We are getting all the extremes and all the ages.
"It is this time of year when we start to get 15-year-olds because of end of term parties.
"A very low percentage of people that we see are chronic alcoholics. The higher and more worrying rate is the binge drinker who holds down a job and then binge drinks every week. Then they sober up on a Sunday for the Monday.
"It is more difficult to recognise and fairly expensive because of the significant injuries."
Kay said the Cardiff Project could help to both improve health education in Hartlepool and make sure resources were targeted at the right place and the right time to tackle the town's drinking problems.
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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