Dr Robert Day Presents, The ICE Age Has Cometh!

Opening day two of the Annual Security Leaders Summit, was Dr Robert Day, Director – Emergency Services for the Royal North Shore Hospital. Dr Day’s presentation, The ICE Age has Cometh, opened up the conversation on the nation’s crystal methamphetamine (‘ice’) problem. He pointed out that this is a common view among emergency services professionals who are at the front line in communities from inner cities to the outback.

Dr Robert Day brought light to the ICE crisis, that has grown over 5.5% annually since 2012 an in NSW hospitals alone, over 400 assaults were made in hospitals. Dr Day also highlighted security within hospitals are reaching a point where drastic measures need to be addressed quickly to prevent an increase in 2016. ICE related attacks, where emergency staff are not only dealing with the patient’s overdose but controlling the patient’s elevated state of mind. It was a thought-provoking presentation that struck with many security professionals at the summit and how this epidemic would impact their organisations.

Dr Robert Day has been Director of Emergency Medicine at Royal North Shore Hospital in Sydney since 2006. Royal North Shore Hospital Emergency Department is the tertiary level hospital servicing the northern Sydney region and saw almost 80,000 patients in 2015. It is a major trauma centre and contains statewide burns and spinal injury units. Dr Day has been an Emergency Specialist and Fellow of the Australasian College for Emergency Medicine since 1993. He is also a Clinical Senior Lecturer with the University of Sydney.