A NIGHTCLUB safety committee has backed a plan to expose venues where revellers are getting drunk before ending up in Cairns Base Hospital emergency department.

Frustrated health officials yesterday spoke out about the alarming spike in intoxicated patients, many of them abusive and violent, turning up for treatment.

The problem has forced hospital staff to keep records of which venues the patients have been drinking at so police and Liquor Licensing can investigate whether alcohol is being served irresponsibly.

Posters promoting the Just Think campaign, an initiative of The Cairns Post and Cairns Taipans basketball team, also will be put up around the emergency department in a bid to curb drunken behaviour.

Cairns City Licensee Safety Association president Paul Garnham said any efforts to prevent problem drinking, especially among youths, were welcomed.

"As we keep saying time and time again, we've got to start educating the young people," he said.

"By the time they get to 18, there's already a culture of binge drinking."

Mr Garnham said many people got drunk at home, went into town and were refused entry by nightclubs.

He said most clubs served alcohol responsibly but some promoted binge drinking.

"There are a few out there making the rest of the venues look bad," Mr Garnham said.

The association's members earlier this year signed an agreement to restrict cheap drink promotions in a bid to reduce booze-related problems in the CBD.

They have also thrown their support behind the Just Think campaign.

Queensland Health managers on Monday said aggressive drunks were not only clogging the emergency department and harassing staff, but they also stressed and frightened other patients.

Yesterday, a Cairns woman, who asked to remain unnamed, told of the appalling behaviour of drunks at the ward when her son was admitted with internal bleeding.

She said four of the seven patients were booze-affected.

Her son almost developed septicemia, a life-threatening illness, but had to wait for treatment because the drunks were causing trouble.

"He was quite frightened, observing all these drunks," she said.

She said she felt sorry for the staff, who were professional and tolerant with the "selfish drunks".

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