There is no evidence treatments at Australia's first dedicated hangover clinic work, the Australian Medical Association has said, raising concerns that the business could encourage people to binge drink.

Key points: Hangover clinic in Sydney hooks patients up to IV fluids and delivers vitamins, anti-nausea medication and oxygen

Hangover clinic in Sydney hooks patients up to IV fluids and delivers vitamins, anti-nausea medication and oxygen AMA says clinics could encourage binge drinking and are not based in evidence

AMA says clinics could encourage binge drinking and are not based in evidence Owner refutes claim, says business is booming and there is room to expand

The Sydney-based facility offers IV fluids, pain relief, vitamins and oxygen to patients who are feeling the ill effects of too much alcohol.

The co-owner of the clinic, former lawyer Max Petro, said he had been working under the watchful eye of New South Wales health officials and so far had heard no objections from them.

But AMA vice-president Stephen Parnis said the treatment offered by the clinic was not based in evidence.

"At worst it can cause harm to people, with unnecessary insertion of intravenous cannula," Dr Parnis said.

"It may get some people to consider that they can write themselves off and that somehow these people will come to the rescue."

Mr Petro said he did not believe his service would encourage binge drinking, especially given the cost of treatments start at $95 for the "Hydro" package, which involves one litre of IV hydration.

At the top end of the packages available at the clinic is the "Resurrection" deal, which costs $200.

Mr Petro said that services like his could also have other benefits for the greater health system.

"Some people have gone to the lengths of going to an emergency ward and saying 'I feel really sick, can I get some fluids? Can I get some oxygen?'" he said.

"And to the extent that we offer a service where people can come in and get a drip, it takes the pressure off people wasting hospital resources."

Patients are hooked up to IV fluid so that they can sit back and receive vitamins, anti-nausea medication and oxygen. ( ABC News: Penny Timms )

These types of clinics are already popular overseas, with "hangover buses" patrolling neighbourhoods in cities such as New York and hotels offering IV recovery drip room service in Las Vegas.

But this is the first of its kind in Australia.

Mr Petro said the business had been so successful that he was already considering expanding.

"We've had a lot more interest than we initially thought we'd have," he said.

"Initially thinking it was going to be 25s to 35s, kind of a party set, but it's been everyone from younger people up to people who maybe had a long business lunch who want to come in after that.

"So it's been really all walks of life."

He came up with the idea while working and partying in snowfields overseas, when he saw how snowfield paramedics managed to stay out late every night drinking and still appear fresh the next day by hooking themselves up to IV fluids in the morning

Hangover clinics 'no place for any self-respecting doctor'

Nick Sidler, who is one of the doctors on hand to help treat people at the hangover clinic, said he started by talking to the client privately to establish how they were feeling and whether they were in pain or nauseous.

"And then we can kind of target the different treatments that we have here more to their needs," Dr Sidler said.

But Dr Parnis said there were many other forms of harm associated with drinking alcohol aside from hangovers.

"We're talking about mental illness, depression, self-harm, aggression and violence, all the physical trauma," Dr Parnis said.

"They're the sorts of things that will continue to come to emergency and I'm sure my department won't be seeing a decline in alcohol-related patients any time soon."

Dr Parnis also said that there was a question of ethics tied up in the clinic's operations and that he would discourage any of his medical colleagues from taking part in the clinic.

"I think it is not really ethical, is based on misinformation, and it misleads the public, and for all of those reasons I don't think it's the sort of place that I think a self-respecting doctor would want to be," he said.