Request
How many admissions to the Accident and Emergency Department at the General Hospital have been related to alcohol in the past five years (broken down into years 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014)? Please provide the ages of those who were admitted.
Response
Unfortunately and after much analysis, we are unable to provide an answer to your request. The Emergency Department coding in TrakCare (the hospitals patient administration system) does not and currently cannot, define alcohol related incidences as a single category.
The ED TrakCare coding inclusive of alcohol is as follows:
This category encompasses deliberate and accidental ingestion of substances including alcohol but will also include medications, cleaning products, aerosols, food poisoning etc. Therefore there is no current way of providing you with a response concerning alcohol related attendance.
Aditionally, patients present with a variety of symptoms or injuries which may be linked to alcohol ingestion but have not been recorded as such, for example ‘head injury’ or ‘fall.’
