Warning over booze culture

An Accident and emergency consultant at Ninewells Hospital last night said only people “living on Mars” could ignore Scotland’s alcohol problem.

Dr Bill Morrison was speaking after it emerged that a 12-year-old boy was hospitalised vomiting blood after a vodka- fuelled binge in Dundee’s Menzieshill area.

Although Dr Morrison stressed that such incidents remain, fortunately, a rarity, he warned that the price Scotland will pay for its unhealthy relationship with alcohol is now becoming apparent.

He said that there had been cases in Dundee where teenagers have died after drowning in their own vomit and that doctors were now seeing patients in their mid-20s presenting with symptoms caused by heavy alcohol abuse over an extended period.

On Friday and Saturday nights, he said, four out of five cases dealt with in A&E departments involved drink—either through alcohol poisoning or injuries sustained while under the influence.

“In A&E attendances across the board, around 10% are alcohol related,” he said. “But at busy times likes Friday and Saturday night that rises to 80%. Scotland has a problem with alcohol and anyone who doesn’t think that is living on Mars.

“To be fair to the Executive, they recognise that there is a problem and they are putting a lot of resources into tackling it.

“But it is part of our psyche. There is very much a ‘Wha’s like us?’ attitude in Scotland.”

Earlier this week, Inchture mum Ann MacLeod warned parents about the dangers of alcohol after her son David was rushed to Ninewells after he was found passed out on a bus and vomiting blood.

Dr Morrison added, “However, we see more people who are drinking legally, around 18, coming into A&E in a highly intoxicated state—although certainly it is more shocking when they are only 12.”

Dr Morrison said that the alcohol abuse has a dangerously high price both in the short and long-term.

“There is the immediate effect—we have had some teenagers who have had too much to drink, have vomited and that has gone into their lungs and they have died. We have seen that,” he said.

“There is also the next stage—actual injuries caused by alcohol and conditions like alcoholic hepatitis and brain atrophy caused by alcohol.”

Dr Morrison added that doctors were now seeing patients present with conditions caused by alcohol abuse at a much earlier age than ever before and that this was putting a greater strain on NHS resources.

“We are seeing people coming in with significant ill health because of alcohol in their mid 20s—something that we used to see when people were in their 30s or 40s,” he said.

The Courier