Charging drunks that abuse the NHS
 

In todays news coverage, on Tv and in newspapers, It has been suggested that NHS should charge people that abuse alcohol at festive periods, as it is costing a great deal of money.

Well when the government can enforce a law that WILL charge foriegners that come into this country and abuse this countries benefit system and the NHS, then l will accept this idea. I took a mate of mine up the local hospital after he slipped on ice, and did his knee in, the LAS wouldn't come out to him, as he wasn't a serious case, when we got to the hospital, there were about ten people who couldn't speak English abusing the staff, as they wanted to be seen first.

This country does have a point on this subject, but then if they stopped this abuse happening, then maybe they will save money in the long run.:mad:

Re: Charging drunks that abuse the NHS
 

What about the tax on alcohol, where does that go?

Re: Charging drunks that abuse the NHS
 

What about fat people who eat too much?
People who smoke?
People who eat too much fried food have a dodgy heart?

In otherwords, It would set a bad precedent.

Re: Charging drunks that abuse the NHS
 

You already get charged after car accidents, it seems to be an extension of this.

That said it'll never be enforceable, most of the 'problem' patients are on benefits and don't pay court imposed fines so adding on NHS charges would be even less likely to get paid.

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Plus it rather goes against the NHS ethos as well as goes straight to the basic premise that a doctor will treat a patient according to their needs regardless of what their lifestyle or ability to pay.

Re: Charging drunks that abuse the NHS
 

I find it unacceptable and personally offensive, that my taxes are wasted on people who have so little self respect, that they feel it necessary to get so snot-faced they end up breaking legs/arms falling off their high heels. Or getting into fights after chucking out time. Then get raced to the front of the A & E queue because they are complete and utter wasters, only to verbally, and occasionally, physically abuse nurses and doctors. While those who don't get snattered on the weekend get to suffer for their drunken stupidity....

if it was upto me, anyone presented to A & E would be blood tested for alcohol, and if showing a high level would be charged for the treatment they receive. If the drunken Richard Head is on benefits, then it gets deducted directly from their dole cheque over a set period of time. If the person is working, then it gets deducted from their wages on payday....

If people have the cash to urinate up a wall. Then they can bloody well pay for the havoc their idiotic drunkenness costs the taxpayer....

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Apparently registered alcoholics on the dole get £200 per week for booze according to Ma in Law. How true this is I have no idea. :shrug:

Re: Charging drunks that abuse the NHS
 

People who drive too fast and/or dangerously and injure themselves?
People who catch a HIV/AIDS or another STD? After all, HIV/AIDS in particular is very expensive to treat, and most people have recreational sex..

Also, even with alcohol, where do you stop? What about someone who has a quick Whisky (one), gets up, leaves, trips, and breaks a leg?

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I wonder if the staff were offended, being abused and getting all these requests
to be seen first, in some foreign language they didn't understand...

Re: Charging drunks that abuse the NHS
 

it's a stupid idea and goes against the very principle of the NHS ,if we can't afford it then get rid of it for something else ,trying to have a half state /half private funded NHS will never work .Instead of targeting the nhs they should target achohol abuse by teenagers and young people ,hit the source of the problem not try to tackle to end result .
As ridiculous as it seems anyone of any age can drink alchohol (over 5yrs i think)it's not illegal ,it's only illegal to buy it ,why can't they make it illegal to drink under 21

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Actually, the NHS was set up with procedures in place to charge people who for whatever reason (e.g people from other countries) are not entitled to free healthcare. It's just those procedures are not used.

As for banning drinking for under 21s, how do you enforce it? Many adults buy alcohol, and store it at home (for legitimate reasons). How would you stop the kids nicking the alcohol, drinking it and going out and causing trouble?

I agree that we need to be treating the source of the problem (the alcohol abuse) rather than the end result. I think part of the problem is that we have the idea of going out and getting drunk deliberately, rather than going out and drinking socially.

Re: Charging drunks that abuse the NHS
 

Spot on, it seems to be the trend these days.

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i think if it was illegal then a better massage would be sent ,i know that it wouldn't stop those determined to have a drink ,but some would think a bit different
i agree with what you say about social drinking younger people do tend to think the whole point of having a drink is to get rat faced ,thats the attitude we have to change

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Well I don't know where the idea has come from to go out and spend a weeks wages on a bender.My generation never quite had the money and neither did our parents who also didn't have the cash to splash on having a lot of booze in the house let alone get bladdered all the time..

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Bloody torys trying to destroy the NHS and charge people for using it. ;)

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It sounds like a media-based preamble to higher taxes on alcohol "for our own good".

I saw figures recently that said alcohol costs the NHS £2billion, whilst HMRC gets £8billion from alcohol sales.

So just transfer £2billion from HMRC to the NHS and it's all sorted... simples!

:dunce:

Re: Charging drunks that abuse the NHS
 

That's how it should work really. we are paying all sorts of 'taxes' on certain things already, but they are asking for the same money again from something else.

it's like you pay road tax which everyone thinks goes towards roads. and tv licence that pays for the upkeep of broadcasting. but still putting the same hidden charge on something totally unrelated to the other..

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Good idea.

Does "paying the tax" give you the right to behave irresponsibly and threaten A&E staff?

Make them spend the following Saturday night in a cell.

No-one is saying they shouldn't be treated. However, they should be made to "face the music" when they sober up.

Re: Charging drunks that abuse the NHS
 

I blame the cheap supermarket booze with no publican there to monitor the drunkenness. This has raised the amount of alcohol needed to get drunk as tolerance levels have gone up.

30 years ago only the weekends were for boozing with the weekdays for playing league Darts or Crib or Aunt Sally or Bar Billiards or suchlike. For the most part we have lost the art of a chat down the pub and a sensible approach to drinking as an adjunct to conversation or pub games. With Mien Host there to monitor consumption & stop selling at the right moment before trouble is likely to start.

Can anyone see the supermarkets allowing tax on booze to go up to a prohibitive level? :shrug:

Re: Charging drunks that abuse the NHS
 

Are you creating something out of nothing?

People have the right to do what they want but be warned of the consequences. Anybody who behaves in a negative manner will be dealt with in a positive manner.

And anyways people who end up in A&E can be drunk and be victims - somebody going about being merry and then being attacked just for bumping into them by accident.

:erm: Not on a Saturday, the cells are fully loaded. I'm sure the Police have better things to do than babysit.

Face what music?

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People stopped going down the pub when the price of a pint or glass of wine became stupidly overpriced and the way supermarket prices have gone up over the last 2 years is totally unacceptable. :mad:

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I reckon the NHS should charge those reponsible for treating the effects of high blood pressure induced by the garbage and drivel sometimes posted in forums like these... :D

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The NHS was created to give medical services to the needy and money taken from our wages each week to cover these costs, the only trouble is now is that it is being abused, and badly.

There is adverts in hospitals, that if you can afford medical treatment, you will be charged for it, but there is no gurrantee that will be chased up, if you are part of the european union, then they are covered, which is WRONG.
My local hospital is swarming with people that have cut fingers, ****ed out of there brains, or having just a headache, what hospitals have to do is IF you can afford private treatment, then you should not be treated, unless you are having a cardiac arrest.

When l had a serious car accident, many years ago, l was sent an invoice, and it asked me if l have an NI number, if l had one the treatment was free.:erm:

Have you noticed that these items only up at festive times.

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Supermarket prices are not CHEAP, they are CHEAPER than pubs where the PUBCOS raise prices constantly to raise revenue for their investors... another reason for pubs closing.

Did anyone else spot the story that publicans are planning to strike over the high prices they are made to pay by the PUBCOS? Often double what they could pay elsewhere!

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Alcohol is increasingly becoming the most destructive thing in this country and while it is great to see it hitting the headlines how long will it be before anything is actually done. For years we have heard how tax on tobacco was raised to pay for the cost of it in terms of the nhs and to put pepople off and that was fine with most people but talk about doing it to alcohol and woah people are up in arms.

I live in a little market town and on the weekends you just do not go into the centre unless you want to be abused, vomited on or assaulted and it's all down to alcohol and the idiots that don't seem to be able to stop at a sensible level of consumption. I will hazard a guess that situation exists all over the UK and yet we take it because our precious alcohol must for some unfathomable reason be cheap for all to enjoy no matter the damage it does.

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I'd like to see two different rates of duty for alcohol. One for drinking in the pub and another higher charge for off-sales.

Having that with a far greater emphasis on licensees having responsibility for not letting patrons get totally hammered and a minimum price per unit stopping the 3 litres for a pound type cider would do more to stop binge drinking than headline grabbing but totally unworkable ideas like this.

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Eh?

So if someone repeatedly gets drunk and abuses ambulance staff, you are saying they should be given a gentle talking to and a lift home? I say they should spend the next Saturday night in custody.

OK, only lock them up when it happens three times in twelve months.

Make them sit in a school gym and watch "educational videos" all night.

It is an expression...

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/face_the_music

Re: Charging drunks that abuse the NHS
 

Not everyone behaves irresponsibly and threatens A&E staff
Dealing with something in a postive manner is what the law allows somebody in authority to do, whether it's dishing out FPN or making arrests or going to see how the magistrate(s) is doing and saying hello.
Yeah, what I meant was I read your posts as if you condemned everybody regardless of blame, again face what music? if that person is not to blame.

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£150 per week extra on top of their dole or sick money. A drug addict gets the same, it's so they can buy their drugs and beer.

---------- Post added at 06:44 ---------- Previous post was at 06:43 ----------


Simple solution make it like Norway where it's £5+ a pint. There's no alcohol fuelled violence over there.

Re: Charging drunks that abuse the NHS
 

Isn't 'that' just the point though Nidge, not many countries on the continent have problems like we do - they don't binge drink and I don't understand why we do :shrug:

Still, I don't think you can charge someone for being drunk over drug users, smokers, obese people - these are lifestyle choices people make and all cost the NHS £millions. Most trusts have a 'zero tolerence' policy where they can turn away anyone being abusive towards them. Of course if the person is in a serious state, then chances are they aren't going to be causing too much havoc.

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I have to disagree slightly with Nidge on his previous point. While it does cost £5 - £6 for a bottle of beer, and £6 - £7 for the equivalent of a pint. This just means the party people get 3 sheets to the wind at home before going to the pub to meet their mates. Saying that. I did spend quite a bit of time in Norway over the last couple of years (ex-girlfriend lived in Oslo, and now in Bergen) and I don't remember once seeing a punch-up outside a bar or nightclub....

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I would also prefer this. It would be interesting to see how much DV and other drink related drains on the NHS are fuelled by binge drinking at home.

There is a severe lack of accountability with supermarket sales vs Licensed premises. At least with the pubs etc allowing excess drinking could result in losing the licence. Whereas the worst offence supermarkets seem to be up against is selling booze for consumption by under 18 year olds.

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Thereby penalising those who want to drink at home with friends and family.

If someone commits an offence (drunk in public, or whatever its called), why not punish them? Why punish the majority of law-abiding citizens?

---------- Post added at 13:27 ---------- Previous post was at 13:25 ----------

Does it matter where the drink was purchased? Shouldn't the message be "responsibility for one's actions"?

Re: Charging drunks that abuse the NHS
 

Hmmmm.... punish the guilty as opposed to the law abiding...., encourage responsibility for one's own actions..... Novel concepts those Norm, do you reckon they'll catch on? :rolleyes:

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I think a responsibility must go down to supermarkets and shops selling the booze cheap, l can buy a can of lager for 35p. in Tesco.

If the people that *need* drink to survive, and they go to the shops, and the shops know that they are *drunk* then the shop should be prosecuted, and the money given to the NHS, l have seen so many people drunk out of there skulls at 7.30am in a certain part of West London, this is what the major problem is - shops sell to make money, but if that store KNOWS who they are and that they are drunk, and sell to that drunk, then that is it.

Supermarket and shops are responsible, plus you could go as far as the Pubs, for allowing drinkers to go over the top.

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When i worked in the off licence, I signed a contract to say I wouldn't sell to underage drinkers, police officers in uniform (weird I know) and those who are already intoxicated.

On more than one occasion I almost got attacked for deciding a customer was already too drunk, only for burly customers stepping in to save me :( I was lucky, but its not all down to those who have to decide to not serve them, surely the drinker has to take some responsibility?? Its ok saying we could call the police, but we were always graded and told an officer would be with us within an hour - they are busy people, so i'm not moaning about it.

Its about time 'we' took responsibility for what we drink and stop blaming everyone else.

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I had to take my wife into A&E one Saturday night and had to wait hours behind abusive puking drunks they should be made to pay as their condition is self inflicted.

Re: Charging drunks that abuse the NHS
 

so is cutting your finger off /slicing yourself with a kitchen knife /sports injuries etc etc. and we all pay via tax .

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When supermarkets can sell a can of beer cheaper than a bottle of water it goes to show where the problems are coming from. You can go round any town in the UK at night and see people drinking alcohol in the streets bought from Supermarkets, these people include underage kids, alcoholics and the people who like to get hammered before they hit the town.

Licensees of pubs have clamped down on who they sell alcohol to whay haven't the supermarkets?? IMO the supermarkets are creating this problem by selling beer basement prices or at a loss.

The Government won't hike the price up becuase most of the brewerys are the biggest payers into the Government coffers, if they increase the prices less people will go out hence less duty, the duty will have to come from somewhere.

They are telling people to stop drinking and smoking, these two bring in billions of pounds each year in duty, if people stopped for one month this country would be on it's backside.