Nightclub medical guidelines

Earlier this month new guidelines were released in the UK to assist nightclubs with information on when to call an ambulance to take drug users to hospital. The guidelines, aimed at reducing the number of drug-related deaths and associated health problems on their premises, are the first of their kind. Drawn up by doctors, in collaboration with the police and ambulance services, the guidelines were created to address concerns that clubbers who overdose may not receive proper medical treatment quickly enough.

The 10-point checklist was designed to give nightclub staff a simple way to decide whether a person who has fallen ill after taking drugs needs to be taken to hospital immediately for emergency care. There have been other guidelines developed but they have usually dealt with security and safety issues. These have been developed alongside a series of recommendations that include clubs having a well-ventilated, quiet medic room with a bed, thermometer, blood pressure monitor, a watch with a second hand and cold water.

The guidelines are quite explicit and involve someone with basic medical training assessing a range of key indicators. Put in simple, easy-to-read language, an ambulance should be called if a clubber has chest pains or seizures, or a consistently high temperature, heart rate or abnormal blood pressure. The guidelines are to be circulated to nightclubs across the country as part of safer clubbing advice, due to be published in the next few weeks. If you are interested in taking a look at them, they also appear in the journal Substance Abuse Treatment, Prevention and Policy.

It will be interesting to see whether wider dissemination of these guidelines, both across the UK and internationally, helps to reduce the overdose problems that can be encountered in club environments. As has been said many times before, Australia (and Sydney in particular) has led the way in this area for many years. It will be interesting to see whether any clubs or parties decide to utilise these important guidelines in their procedures.

This week I will be attending the Club Health Conference in Ibiza, Spain. Hopefully I will have a whole pile of interesting new research to report on in the coming weeks.

Remember: if you do not want any negative consequences, do not use the drug and, no matter how many times you have used a substance, never be blase.