Drunk louts swamp WA hospitals

WA hospital emergency departments are among the worst in the nation for alcohol-fuelled presentations on weekends, with a study showing one in five patients is drunk or injured from out-of-control drinking.

A snapshot of 92 Australian hospitals taken at 2am on a Saturday last December found that 21 per cent of all patients at 10 WA emergency departments were treated for alcohol-related reasons - more than 50 per cent higher than the national average of 13.8 per cent.

WA's high rate of alcohol- related presentations was second only to the Northern Territory.

It comes weeks after a survey of more than 2000 emergency department staff around the country found doctors and nurses were often threatened, spat on and punched by drunk patients.

More than 90 per cent of doctors and nurses said they had been assaulted or physically threatened by intoxicated patients in the past 12 months and 98 per cent had faced verbal aggression.

The latest study, published in the Medical Journal of Australia this week, warned that alcohol-related presentations were under-reported because it was not mandatory for hospitals to collect figures.

One of the researchers, University of WA professor of emergency medicine and Royal Perth Hospital doctor Daniel Fatovich, said the findings confirmed the impact of alcohol on health services.

"I've been in this job for several decades and alcohol has always been prominent but I would certainly say it has increased in the last decade and there are more people drinking at high levels," he said.

Professor Fatovich said the snapshot had focused on the early hours of a Saturday morning in summer when many alcohol- related issues came to a head.

Another survey planned for next month would screen patients over a week at nine emergency departments in Australia and New Zealand, including RPH.