Alcohol consumption continues to be a significant contributing factor to hospital admissions and deaths from a diverse range of conditions. Latest Public Health England (PHE) Local Alcohol Profiles for England data1 show that alcohol-related admissions during the year 2015/2016 increased to 2179 per 100 000 admission episodes as compared with 1639/100 000 in 2008/2009. Alcohol-related liver and cardiovascular disease conditions are both increasing and alcohol-related mortality remains high (46.1 per 100 000 in 2015).Unfortunately, there are no comparable national data for alcohol-related ED attendances in the UK. Irving et al have evidenced that in the UK 12%–15% of ED attending patients are intoxicated.2 As they describe in this issue, a study is under way to provide evidence on whether services, which divert patients away …
Source: Taking control of alcohol-related emergency department visits | Emergency Medicine Journal
