Charging drunks that abuse the NHS

[Taf]

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!

[Gary L]

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..

[TheNorm]

Originally Posted by Arthurgray50@blu

In todays news coverage, on Tv and in newspapers, It has been suggested that NHS should charge people that abuse alcohol ...

Good idea.

Originally Posted by NoKnowledge

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

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

Originally Posted by Derek S

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.

Make them spend the following Saturday night in a cell.

Originally Posted by Maggy J

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.

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

[Angua]

Originally Posted by Maggy J

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..

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?

[NoKnowledge]

Originally Posted by TheNorm

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

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.

Originally Posted by TheNorm

Make them spend the following Saturday night in a cell.

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

Originally Posted by TheNorm

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

Face what music?

[budwieser]

Originally Posted by Angua

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?

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.

[Osem]

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...

[Arthurgray50@blu]

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.

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

[Taf]

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!

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.

[Derek]

Originally Posted by budwieser

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.

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.

[TheNorm]

Originally Posted by NoKnowledge

Are you creating something out of nothing?...

Eh?

...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....

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.

...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....

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

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

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

...Face what music?

It is an expression...

to face the music

(idiomatic) to accept or confront the unpleasant consequences of one's actions

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

[NoKnowledge]

Originally Posted by TheNorm

Eh?

Not everyone behaves irresponsibly and threatens A&E staff

Originally Posted by TheNorm

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.

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.

Originally Posted by TheNorm

It is an expression...



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

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.

Originally Posted by Angua

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.

£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 ----------

Originally Posted by Derek S

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.

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

[superbiatch]

Originally Posted by Nidge

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

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

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.