BINGE DRINKING stopped?

[pattricia]

Bailiffs won't help with people who don't have the money; and I suspect, certainly with drug addicts and quite likely with drunkards, that they won't.

 

The alternative, of demanding money up front, is little better. You're effectively asking doctors and nurses to go against their entire ethos and training, and refuse treatment to somebody if they roll up without any money. Regardless of whether, morally, it's a good or a bad idea, I don't think it is practical.

 

Im sure some doctors and nurses would like drunks & drug addicts to pay for treatment. Many of the medical staff in A & E are assaulted by the addicts when they are high. I once saw a nurse given a full blow to the face, and knocked out cold, by a drinker.

[Paul2412]

Im sure some doctors and nurses would like drunks & drug addicts to pay for treatment. Many of the medical staff in A & E are assaulted by the addicts when they are high. I once saw a nurse given a full blow to the face, and knocked out cold, by a drinker.

 

Exactly, that person should be blacklisted from the hospital as well as the (hopeful) ABH charge and prison stretch they served.

[medusa]

So those who advocate this initiative would force medical staff to stand by and watch someone with alcohol poisoning or who had received a potentially fatal would in a drunken brawl die needlessly, just because they hadn't paid a previous medical bill?

 

That would be against the Hippocratic oath for a start, so I think you'd find very few doctors in the NHS who would agree with it.

 

Then there's the 'NHS services are free at the point of delivery' argument as above.

 

If you start with the argument that these people are responsible for their own condition then it's a very slippery slope which involves judging who is responsible for an injury from a fight and whether they should receive treatment because they just happened to be in a nightclub when they were attacked by someone else- or were they? They may have been out on the lash themselves and so were they participating in a fight? Ah, if that's the case then they deserve to carry on bleeding from their head wound then.

[Dogs Of War]

They should pay, same with junkies who come in the hospital time and time again. Treat them and then invoice them. If they don't pay, send the bailiffs round.

 

i agree- if junkies or alco`s turn up at hospital and dont have the cash to pay on the spot - kick them out .

 

why should vital hospital resources be tied up dealing with people who cant hold their booze and drink to excess or stick needles in their arms to get a buzz.

[Xt500]

Yeah, OK. Let's compare the guy/girl who spends all day drinking alcohol, drinking until they collapse or decide to fight someone with someone who has been in a car accident.

 

Are you happy that your paying for someone to get so off their head each week that they take up a bed which a relative of yours might desperately need some day?

 

 

Shortage of beds can hardly be blamed on drinkers.It could be argued that drinkers pay well in tax when they purchase the stuff.

 

I suppose MORE drinkers could always turn to drugs after all there much cheaper and not taxed to death!