A chara, – Rosita Boland’s article portraying a Saturday night in the emergency department of Limerick’s Midwestern Regional Hospital (Weekend Review, November 12th) was alarming in the extreme. In 2005 the HSE put at 28 per cent the number of alcohol-related admissions to Irish emergency departments, and it seems unlikely that that figure has changed much in the intervening six years.
Because alcohol-related injuries are more demanding on emergency services than others (since the injured parties may be belligerent, non-communicative, and accompanied by other intoxicated people or gardaí) it seems likely that other patients would be seen in good time if alcohol-related injuries were taken out of the equation.
Ireland already led the world once by taking nationwide public action on tobacco use. Surely we can do the same again with alcohol? The consequences of not acting are already becoming obvious to all. – Is mise,