St Vincent’s Hospital saw less patients admitted during lockout laws

The lockout laws introduced in 2014 after two one-punch deaths devastated Sydney’s night-time economy but led to a 30 per cent drop in assaults presenting at St Vincent’s Hospital, a new study shows.

Sydney’s lockout laws led to a 30 per cent reduction in patients being brought into St Vincent’s Hospital’s emergency department with assault-related injuries, a new study has revealed.

The study, conducted by St Vincent’s head of general surgery Dr Anthony Chambers, found 450 fewer people arrived at the emergency department with assault-related injuries during the five years after the introduction of the lockout laws (2014-2019), compared to the five years prior (2009-2014).

The greatest reduction in cases was among young men with trauma from fist fights, Dr Chambers said.

“We found a significant fall of 25 per cent less (young men) after the lockout laws were in introduced,” he said.

Sydney’s lockout laws were introduced in 2014 to curb alcohol-fuelled violence in Kings Cross following the coward-punch killings of Thomas Kelly in July 2012 and Daniel Christie in December 2013.

Thomas Kelly, 18, died after he was king hit in Kings Cross.

Daniel Christie died after being king hit in 2013.

In the five years prior to 2014 there was an average of 342 assault-related admissions per year (0.79% of all emergency presentations) and in the five years following the lockout laws (2014-2019) there was an average of 255 assault-related admissions per year (0.53% of all emergency presentations).

This equates to a 25 per cent drop in assault-related admissions and a 30 per cent reduction in emergency presentations.

The study, presented on Thursday at the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons Scientific Congress in Melbourne, also found intensive care unit admissions for serious assault also dropped 16 per cent.

“The only thing that changed in that time was the lockout laws were introduced so we think it is because of less violence related to excessive consumption of alcohol in that city area,” Dr Chambers said.

Kings Cross on a Saturday night in April 2021 after the lockout laws were lifted. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Flavio Brancaleone

As a surgeon for 10 years, Dr Chambers has seen the worst of the cases.

“When they come in and have been assaulted it is usually some kind of fist fight — a facial fracture or head or chest injury — but the more serious are those brought in by the ambulance unconscious,” he said.

“The reason these laws were introduced was because of the number of deaths due to assaults that were related to alcohol.

“I’ve been involved with treating many of those people have been brought in. If someone has a serious head injury sometimes it isn’t survivable and that is what we saw with those two young males.”

The lockout laws were repealed in March with the 1.30am lockout removed so patrons can continue to enter venues like pubs, bars and nightclubs beyond that time. The 3am “last drinks” time was increased to 3.30am and restrictions on certain drinks, shots, discounted cocktails and use of glass after midnight was lifted, as well as the requirements for RSA marshals.

Assaults in the Kings Cross area decreased during the lockout laws. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Flavio Brancaleone

Premier Gladys Berejiklian said the changes will help boost jobs and revitalise a popular area of Sydney.

“Kings Cross has transformed considerably since these laws were introduced over six years ago,” Ms Berejiklian said.

But physicians at St Vincent’s now fear a return of the violence once current COVID restrictions lift.

“At St Vincent’s we are quite concerned, we would hate to see a return to those higher levels of violence that we saw,” Dr Chambers said.

Emergency department head Dr Paul Preisz said there was “a strong correlation” between the number of people in a confined space, the amount of alcohol and violence.

“I was here for the worst of it and I was here for what we can look back on and say was the best of it,” he said.

“We are seeing hints of it changing, we can be the canary in the coal mine for people who make these decisions.

“If it turns out this will return to a place we don’t want to be, maybe those decisions can be revisited.”

Originally published as St Vincent’s Hospital saw less patients admitted during lockout laws