Hospital treatment of Addicts Arrested for Intoxication in Finland

Abstract

Hospital treatment of addicts arrested for intoxication in Finland. Niemi, T. (Dept. of Public Health Sciences, Univ. of Helsinki, Finland).

In the present study the treatment of addicts as performed by the Finnish police was investigated. The intention was to evaluate how the treatment procedure functioned in meeting the need for medical care and safety of the addict. The series was collected from the police district of Helsinki, the Finnish capital, and comprised all addicts arrested and transported to hospital during 1969. The series totalled 859 cases, which is about 2% of all addicts arrested in Helsinki during 1969. The reasons for transportation to hospital were: external injuries (60%) and the addict's complaints of an injury or illness (17%). Of all subjects, 44 were admitted to a hospital ward and of these, 2 died later on the ward. Furthermore, 7 addicts had died at the police station, on the way to hospital, or at the out-patients' department. Thus the number of deaths totalled 9. On investigating the cases of death in detail it was found that omission of or delay in the transport to hospital may have been of decisive influence on the addict's death in 4 cases. It was estimated that, had the police not transported any of the addicts to hospital, the number of deaths would have been about 20. When the cost of hospital treatment and transport to hospital is used as an evaluation factor the effort of the activity covered by the present study is 98500 Fmk (U.S. 23 200). The output is the number of lives saved, i.e. 11. The efficiency of the activity is thus the saving of one life at the cost of about 9 000 Fmk (about 2 100 U.S.). The social characteristics of the addict were not found to have had a decisive bearing on the question of transportation to hospital. Differences between the various points of activity were observed in the relative numbers of the addicts arrested and transported to hospital.