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Alcohol related incidents to staff

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WQ.193/2023

WRITTEN QUESTION TO THE MINISTER FOR HEALTH AND SOCIAL SERVICES BY DEPUTY T.A. COLES OF ST. HELIER SOUTH

QUESTION SUBMITTED ON MONDAY 24th APRIL 2023

ANSWER TO BE TABLED ON TUESDAY 2nd MAY 2023

Question

“Will the Minister provide details of incidents against staff that have been the result of alcohol consumption since 2019, broken down by month?”

Answer

Health and Community Services does not collect data on incidents to staff which were considered a result of alcohol consumption. Within the Jersey General Hospital and the Emergency Department specifically, visitors are not routinely tested for their alcohol levels unless there is a significant clinical indication to do so. Furthermore, staff are trained not to assume that a patient's behaviour is because of alcohol consumption as there are many underlying medical conditions that could cause confusion and agitation. We therefore would not encourage staff to assume and report an incident being due to alcohol intoxication.

However, a search of patient safety incidents using the keyword ‘alcohol’ in the incident description did return four incidents that related to alcohol since 2019. All four of these incidents were within Adult Mental Health Services (one in each year from 2019-2022 inclusive) and related to incidents where the patient was visibly seen drinking/ holding alcohol or had been breathalysed; no staff came to harm as a result of these.