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G43 ALCOHOL RELATED ATTENDANCES IN YOUNG CHILDREN: TAKING AN INITIATIVE

B. M. Mehta, M. Barlow, N. Evans, K. Williams.Accident and Emergency Department, Alder Hey Children’s Hospital, Liverpool, UK

Introduction: Alcohol consumption is increasing among young people; those under 16 years are drinking twice as much compared with 10 years ago. The National Alcohol Harm Reduction Strategy (NAHRS) acknowledges that educating young people to drink responsibly is fundamental to any long term strategy aimed at minimising the detrimental effects of alcohol misuse on society. Emergency departments are a key place to recognise these vulnerable drinkers. A previous audit of alcohol related attendances to our large urban paediatric emergency department in 2002/3 identified increasing attendances, weaknesses in information collection, inconsistencies in acute management, and poor follow up and support for these potentially vulnerable children and their families. A clinical care pathway was formulated by a multidisciplinary team, which consisted of hospital and community stakeholders.

Methods: Following implementation of the Alcohol Care Pathway in spring 2004 all children who present to the emergency department with alcohol related problems and their parents are given an information pack and offered follow up at a brief intervention clinic with trained nurse specialists. Subsequent alcohol related attendances were re-audited for the 3 month period of summer 2004.

Results: Sixty children presented to A&E with primarily alcohol related attendances in the summer 2004 audit period (0.4% of new attendees). Four patients were excluded from analysis because they left before assessment. Age range was 10–15 years. Female to male ratio was 1.8:1. Over 10% presented with a GCS of 8 or lower. 62% had drunk alcohol previously and 7% had previous alcohol related hospital attendances. 16% were hypothermic. None was hypoglycaemic. Seven children had taken other substances and coingestion was suspected in a further three. Comorbidity included head injury, assault, and alleged or suspected rape. Blood alcohol concentration …

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