Emergency room docs fed up with drunk, aggressive patients

Dutch emergency room doctors are calling on the government to make alcohol more expensive and more difficult to come by. They've had enough of drunk, aggressive patients acting out in emergency rooms, the Dutch association for emergency room doctors NVSHA said in the Telegraaf. "There is always a lot of attention to problems with drugs. But in reality the alcohol problem is much bigger", Crispijn van den Brand said to the newspaper. According to him, extra security to keep drunk patients in line in emergency rooms, is almost standard practice. The association estimates that between half and two-thirds of patients that end up in an inner-city hospital over the weekend, are very much under the influence of alcohol. And treating them takes a lot of effort, according to Van den Brand. "We can not and do not want to refuse that, because doctors don't do that. But it often comes at the expense of patients who are sober." The NVSHA is launching a national study into alcohol-induced problems in emergency rooms across the country.