VICTORIAN paramedics are being called to an average of almost 60 alcohol-related and 25 drug-affected patients a day.<\/p>\n
A surge in ice-related call-outs is a main cause of an increase in attendances of almost 30 per cent on the year before.<\/p>\n
Prescription medication \u2014 mostly sleeping tablets and anti-anxiety medication benzodiazepines \u2014 continue to be involved in more ambulance call-outs than illicit drugs.<\/p>\n
But a Turning Point report shows that the proportion of illicit drug misuse has dramatically increased.<\/p>\n
Attendances for crystal methamphetamine or \u201cice\u201d almost doubled in 2014-2015. The 2271 attendances a year, or six a day, is an eightfold increase since 2010-2011.<\/p>\n
The Ambo Project, a summary of Victoria\u2019s drug and alcohol related ambulance attendances, shows that alcohol-related harm is the most common problem: there were 21,602 call-outs compared with 9038 for illicit drugs and 9941 for prescription medications.<\/p>\n
The number of alcohol-related cases increased almost threefold in the past six years; paramedics now attend 57 cases daily; in 49, it is the only drug involved.<\/p>\n
Turning Point lead researcher Belinda Lloyd said ambulance call-outs for prescription medications, including antidepressants, anti-psychotics and painkillers, were higher in regional areas per rate of population.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is no longer a problem for major cities and entertainment precincts,\u201d Ms Lloyd.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need more awareness about how to minimise the harm from drugs.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ambulance Victoria general manager of emergency operations Mick Stephenson, said the increase in drug call-outs, particularly amphetamines, meant paramedics more frequently sedated patients to prevent self-harm and protect health workers.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey take this stuff at their peril because they don\u2019t know what\u2019s in it and nor do we.\u201d<\/p>\n
Minister for Mental Health Martin Foley said training of almost 40,000 frontline health workers in dealing with ice-affected patients started today.<\/p>\n
Opposition health spokeswoman Mary Wooldridge said alcohol and drug-fuelled harm continued to put paramedics and others at risk.<\/p>\n
Source:\u00a0 http:\/\/www.heraldsun.com.au\/news\/victoria\/ambulance-callouts-soar\u00a0 7th Nov 2016<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" VICTORIAN paramedics are being called to an average of almost 60 alcohol-related and 25 drug-affected patients a day. A surge in ice-related call-outs is a main cause of an increase in attendances of almost 30 per cent on the year before. Prescription medication \u2014 mostly sleeping tablets and anti-anxiety medication benzodiazepines \u2014 continue to be […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,11,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12939","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-australia","category-effects-of-drugs","category-social-affairs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12939","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12939"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12939\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12939"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12939"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12939"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}