A&E generally do not test people who fear drink was spiked, health leader says

A&E departments do not generally test people who fear they have had their drink spiked, a health leader has warned.

Reports of drink spikings have grabbed headlines over the past few weeks due to troubling reports surfacing of women being injected with an unknown substance in nightclubs and bars.

But speaking to The Independent, vice president of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, Dr Adrian Boyle, said “fairly uniformly” the NHS does not test for drink spiking, adding: “There is no hard policy on this.”

He said: “We would only do diagnostic tests where it was going to change the way we would manage patients in terms of physical health.

“The vast majority of people we see who think they have had their drink spiked have simply drunk too much. We think drink spiking is overstated. Much more of a problem is people getting too drunk.”

Dr Boyle, who made the comments before the spate of needle attack reports, argued studies have previously found that when people fear they have been spiked, no drugs are found in their system.

“We are much more concerned about people making themselves vulnerable by just drinking too much,” he said. “The volume does not seem like a large group of people to us. Undoubtedly there will be some people who get their drinks spiked.”

The emergency medicine consultant, who oversees the professional association of emergency doctors, noted that they do not routinely gather drug test samples for the police – adding that in most scenarios the responsibility belongs to forensic medical clinicians.

“Most police forces have a contract with a private company,” he said. “If they were interested in prosecuting a crime, they do their own forensic work.”

He argued the toxicology screenings they utilise to test people for drugs are “pretty crude” and do not check for many of the newer drugs which are used to spike drinks.

Tests to decipher if there are drugs in a person's system must be carried out within 12 to 72 hours.

Helena Conibear, chief executive of the Alcohol Education Trust, hit out at Dr Boyle’s remarks and argued drink spiking is in fact “vastly understated”.

“This echoes what we are finding from those brave enough to report spiking,” she said. “It is often not taken seriously and dismissed by police and health professionals. If someone has come into A&E, often very traumatised, sometimes having seizures, it is not enough to presume they haven’t been spiked. It should be the other way.”

She said people who have had their drink spiked often fear they are not going to be believed due to their memory being “hazy”.

But Ms Conibear urged people who fear they have had their drink tampered with to come forward – adding that stories she has heard span from “falling over and losing a front tooth” to being “ill for two or three days”.

“Drink spiking doesn’t just happen at bars, clubs and festivals and is often within a slightly wider friendship circle,” she said. “Everyone thinks it is girls whose drinks are spiked – it’s also young men.”

Nottinghamshire Police, West Yorkshire Police, and Police Scotland are currently looking into claims from women who believe they were spiked by needles. Meanwhile, boycotts of nightclubs have been planned as students demand more stringent security in venues.

Cherry Rothwell, a broadcast journalist, told The Independent she was spiked during freshers’ week in her second year at the University of East Anglia in Norwich.

“Me and my friend went to a warehouse event rave quite far out in the countryside, 30 or 40 minutes from the city centre,” she recalled. “I know I wasn’t that drunk as I don’t like going to unfamiliar venues.”

She said her memory of the night then suddenly “went blank” – adding that the next thing she remembers is being outside the venue sat on a step “leaned forward”.

Ms Rothwell, who has made a documentary about drink spiking, added: “I hit my head on the step in front of me. Then a taxi turned up. In the taxi, I remember I was genuinely paralysed. I remember it quite clearly, maybe because I was panicking.

“I could not move any part of my body, and I couldn’t speak. It was a totally alien feeling – totally different to being paralytic drunk. My friend was next to me throwing up all down herself. She had also been spiked. I know exactly how it feels to get blackout drunk. This was totally different.”

Once she got back home, her flatmates who feared for her safety called for an ambulance, she said, adding that it later emerged she had endured a four-hour blackout.

Ms Rothwell, who stopped going out for a few months after the incident, explained how she started looking into drink spiking when clubs reopened after the lockdown.

She added: “I saw loads of people saying ‘watch out don’t go to this place, it is dangerous’ on social media. From research I’ve done, it seems everyone passes the blame to someone else with drink spiking.”

Ms Rothwell said experts in the charity sector wrongly assume bar staff are well trained on drink spiking, adding that while some of them are, many aren’t.

She said: “When you talk to bar staff, they say it is the responsibility of security. But I don’t think security necessarily even think about this.

“Security is so hard on drug-taking. I’ve seen security in clubs go through dance floors making sure people aren’t taking drugs – can’t they take a more proactive approach to drink spiking.”

Ms Rothwell argued there is a “blind spot and lack of policies and procedures in place” for drink spiking across different sectors.

Daniel Foster, who has worked as a bartender in London for eight years, told The Independent he has never received guidance from managers on drink spiking.

“I’ve had no training on this,” the 30-year-old added. “Nobody has ever spoken about what you are supposed to do in this situation. That is just how society is. We don’t protect our women or people from sexual harassment or assault. Not enough has been done.”

Paul Reed, chief executive for the Association of Independent Festivals, said he was unable to comment on the extent of drink spiking at festivals and pointed to a dearth of research on the issue.

Mr Reed, whose organisation has created a Safer Spaces initiative that addresses sexual violence and harassment, said: “Drink spiking is inherently connected to the issue of sexual assault and harassment. We haven’t done anything on drink spiking. If we are being truthful, support from those who have had their drinks spiked is an area which needs some work.”