Alcohol causes three in four A&E admissions

AS many as three quarters of admissions to the country’s largest accident and emergency departments at night are drink related, a study has found.

The level of drunkenness in some A&Es is almost three times that recorded in the last survey of alcohol-related casualty admissions in 2001 and is a further indication of the spiralling level of alcohol abuse among young people.

The study is being carried out at Cork's University Hospital, Waterford Regional Hospital, Dublin's Mater and St Vincent's and Galway's University College Hospital. The project is being co-ordinated by Eamon Brazil, Accident and Emergency Consultant and Dr John Sheehan, consultant psychiatrist at the Mater Hospital.