Nelson Weekly
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Wednesday 19 June 2019
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Alcohol-fuelled violence ‘unacceptable’ Sara Hollyman Frontline workers say alcohol continues to be a key driver of violence in Nelson and stress that our attitude towards booze needs to change. For the next few weeks Nelson Weekly is looking at the relationship between alcohol and violence through the eyes of those who deal with it every day as part of their jobs – our hospitals, police and the court system. This week we speak to the Nelson Hospital’s Alex Munro, who has been clinical director of the Emergency Department for the past five years. The ED now sees around 300 patients a year who are accompanied by police – a number that has seen a six per cent rise over the past 12 months. He describes a typical Friday night as busy, noisy, congested, frustrating, high turnover, high risk, stressful, smelly, and again frustrating. Outbursts of alcohol-fuelled violence can range from verbal threats and abuse through to
Nelson Hospital’s clinical director of the Emergency Department, Alex Munro, says the behaviour of people under the influence can be unnerving for staff . Photo: Sara Hollyman.
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physical acts of violence on staff, again something that has seen an increase over the past few years. “We have perfect conditions for that, especially in a crowded ED,” he says. “You can imagine we see people at their worst, they’re experiencing sometimes the worst things of their lives and some of them have limited ability to cope so often express it in terms of physical and verbal threats, to the point some of our nurses have been struck.” Andrew says sometimes people just need to “take a look at themselves”. He says Nelson’s attitude towards alcohol needs to change. “Yes, this is a public space but it’s not a place where you should feel comfortable talking to us or at us like some people do, racial slurs and abuse, verbal violence. It’s quite unpleasant, some of it’s horrible, some of the language that comes out is incredible.” Each year around 1000 patients
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