No tolerance for violent revellers | Bay of Plenty News | Local News in Bay of Plenty

About 200 people are expected through Tauranga Hospital's emergency department on New Year's Eve and staff are reinforcing their warning they will prosecute violent patients.

Bay of Plenty District Health Board clinical director of emergency medicine Derek Sage said this year the 24 hours from midnight New Year's Eve saw 180 patients start 2011 with a trip to the emergency department.

"First of January always sets the new record," Mr Sage said.

Early on New Year's Day he had four patients in the ED (emergency department) - all who had suffered blows to the head - whose behaviour made them difficult to manage.

"From what I remember I don't think any of them were a person with brain damage. It will come down to the fact that they'd had too much to drink," he said.

There will be 13 nurses, two junior doctors and Mr Sage working in the ED this New Year's Eve.

Christmas Day numbers varied from year to year, but Mr Sage said the 10-day period from Boxing Day until January 2 or 3 was the busiest time of the year for the ED.

Mr Sage reinforced the department's harder line over violence against staff after a nurse was punched in the chest and another racially abused in the same evening last month.

"There have been other events running up to that. That evening was sort of enough's enough," he said.

Staff will now pursue prosecutions against those who hurl abuse at them, including trespass orders and assault charges, he said.

Mr Sage said it was often patient's relatives or friends who would cause problems.

"Anyone that's with them, they sometimes can be the difficult customers," he said

Alcohol was a major factor in the injuries and medical problems patients fronted up with over the holiday period.

"A fair percentage of them, because of the alcohol, become obnoxious and difficult," he said.

Drunk people coupled with increased waiting times also made for all the ingredients of a confrontational start to the consultation, he said.

"They slow us down and others who are here for legitimate reasons don't get the same level of service," he said.

The department's clinical nurse manager, Marama Tauranga, said nurses were trained to defuse heated situations but alcohol and drug use meant this was not always possible.

"So then you have to keep yourself and the other patients safe," she said.

Last Sunday, Mr Sage had to call security at 3am to help him deal with a drunk patient.

"The thing about it was that it was nothing unusual. Our security here have a very busy time. They almost live with us here at times," he said.

The number of drunken injuries during the holiday season also creates a two- or three-day queue for patients needing emergency surgery, putting elective surgeries put on hold.

Mr Sage has worked in the Tauranga ED for 10 years and expected the number of young adults experimenting with alcohol to continue to grow.