The head of Waikato Hospital's Emergency Department is calling for ‘Crate Day' to be banned after the ED was flooded with intoxicated people on Saturday night.

While a number of parties across New Zealand spiralled out of control on December 3, in the Bay of Plenty it appears Crate Day celebrations, if any took place, were a lot more subdued.

Created and promoted by The Rock radio station, Crate Day is an annual event held on the first Saturday of December and encourages people to share a crate of beer to celebrate the arrival of the ‘Kiwi summer'.

Bay of Plenty District Health Board communications manager Diana Marriot says the board were neither aware nor did they hear anything thing about Crate Day, and there was no spike in the number of presentations at the Tauranga or Whakatāne ED's.

It's a sentiment echoed by St John, with a spokesperson confirming to SunLive they too didn't notice an increase in the number of incidents attended by ambulance staff across the Bay on Saturday.

In a statement sent to SunLive, a spokesperson says police do not support or condone events or promotions that encourage irresponsible drinking.

'This time of year being the start of summer and leading into the festive season there tends to be more social events and alcohol being consumed.

"Police want people to enjoy themselves during this festive season and to drink responsibly.

"This means drinking in moderation, eating food, drinking water and looking after each other.”

But it was a completely different story across the hill, with a surge of drunk people presenting at Waikato Hospital ED starting at about 10pm and peaking at 2am. There were also people still waiting to be seen by a doctor by 8am on Sunday, says clinical director head Dr John Bonning.

'There were a lot of 16-23 year-olds represented. Most were purely intoxicated and too drunk to look after themselves in the community. There were also a number injured as a result of being intoxicated. They were loud, rude and demanding,” says John.

The influx meant time and resources were diverted away from other patients, including older people and young children.

'We had five resuscitation rooms running with a continuous flow of intoxicated people, and even bringing in staff to work overtime we were struggling to cope, some people waited 11 hours to be seen.

I know that ‘Crate Day' started as a radio station publicity stunt, but encouraging binge drinking like this is incredibly irresponsible.”

Binge drinking is not only harmful to people's health but it also put undue strain on emergency departments across the country which puts other people's lives at risks.

Under the Ministry of Health's national health targets, DHB's aim to get 95 per cent of patients assessed, treated, admitted or discharged from ED's within six hours – but this was never going to be achieved at Waikato Hospital in the weekend, says John.

'Crate day is not a bit of fun to be celebrated, it's encouraging people to binge drink an entire crate of beer, which is incredibly harmful to their health. If people could see what I see in my emergency department at 2am in the morning, they wouldn't be so keen to take part.”

Police have also been left with serious concerns over the level of intoxication at Crate Day events around the country, with incidents reported in the Waitemata, Waikato, Tasman, Christchurch and Southern policing districts.

In one incident, about 300 people trashed Queenstown's village green, leaving bottles and boxes on the site during an impromptu event. No arrests were made and no liquor ban was breached, reports Fairfax.

- Additional reporting: Stuff.co.nz