Rise in Belfast patients over drink-drive limit

The number of patients over the drink-drive limit in Belfast City Hospital rose by 113% in five years, says a study out today.

Tests on blood alcohol levels at the south Belfast hospital showed that numbers over the legal limit soared, a study published in the Emergency Medicine Journal said.

The authors said more research was needed to assess levels across all UK hospitals.

Their study examined blood laboratory tests taken between September 1999 and August 2000 and from September 2003 to August 2004.

The number of patients with blood alcohol above 80mg/100ml, the legal limit for drivers, rose 113% across the study period, from 526 to 1,124.

The number with alcohol levels above 480mg/100ml rose from five to 29, an increase of 480%. The highest blood alcohol level recorded was 750mg per 100ml of blood.

The annual number of tests requested rose from 825 to 2,031, an increase of 146%, the study found.

The number of tests on those aged under the age of 26 were recorded as being up 169%, from 97 to 261.

Drunk men outnumbered drunk women, although the number of intoxicated women treated in Belfast City Hospital doubled over the study period, from 203 to 401.

Among the under-16s there were more drunk girls than boys, the study added.

The authors, based at the hospital, concluded: “This paper supports the impression that there are more intoxicated people presenting to emergency departments.

“We feel that alternative reasons for such increases in our department, such as more blood samples being sent off by nursing staff, would not account for such dramatic changes.”

Dr Peter Allely from the hospital’s emergency department, said: “One of the things we are calling for, I guess, is for all UK hospitals to start recording data like this, so we can keep an eye on the problem to see if it is getting worse and try and spur the government into action.”