Sydney doctors support lockout laws

February 24 will mark one year since Sydney’s lockout laws were passed by former Premier Barry O’Farrell, and doctors at Sydney’s St Vincent's Hospital are praising New South Wales Government.

Mark Winder, a neurosurgeon at St Vincent's, which borders Kings Cross, has said there’s been a noticeable decrease in the number of alcohol-related injuries since the lockout laws were put in place.

“We've really noticed the difference in a reduction in the numbers and the severity of type of injuries,” he told ABC News. “[…] Whereas in the last years gone by, you know, one to two years specifically, you know, we would be seeing at least three to four per week when we're on call. Now we'd be lucky to see even one major injury within the week coming in, based on the lockout rule.”

Winder was Daniel Christie’s surgeon, the 18-year-old who was killed in Kings Cross by what’s been dubbed a ‘coward punch’ on New Year's Eve in 2013.

Interestingly, the 1:30am lockout law was relaxed to 3am for the 2014 New Year’s Eve. However, police said revellers were well behaved.

In September last year the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research findings (for the period from October 2013 to September) noted a 40% drop in alcohol-related assaults at licensed premises in Kings Cross.

At an EMC panel in December, Jackie Fitzgerald, Deputy Director of the Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research, said non-domestic assault was dropping before the 1:30am lockouts and 3am last drinks laws were put in place in February.

The Government is currently the reviewing the impact of the reform.