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"Fine drunks who abuse A&E staff £50, says minister"
"Drunks who abuse staff in A&E departments should be fined £50, health minister Norman Lamb has said.
Those who ‘gratuitously’ consume too much alcohol, especially at the weekends, are putting a ‘huge’ burden on hospitals according to the senior Liberal Democrat.
He wants on-the-spot fines for them, starting with those who are ‘abusive’ to medical staff, and can make A&E feel like a ‘war zone’."
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2733354/Fine-drunks-abuse-A-E-staff-50-says-minister-He-wants-spot-penalties-end-hospital-war-zones.html
Sounds like a very good idea to me.
Anybody arguing that the fines will simply just go unpaid and that they can't be policed, stuff and nonsense. Look how they've enforced parking fines or speeding tickets even. Like mugs we still all pay up and just go on resenting them.
Bring it on I say.
Those who ‘gratuitously’ consume too much alcohol, especially at the weekends, are putting a ‘huge’ burden on hospitals according to the senior Liberal Democrat.
He wants on-the-spot fines for them, starting with those who are ‘abusive’ to medical staff, and can make A&E feel like a ‘war zone’."
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2733354/Fine-drunks-abuse-A-E-staff-50-says-minister-He-wants-spot-penalties-end-hospital-war-zones.html
Sounds like a very good idea to me.
Anybody arguing that the fines will simply just go unpaid and that they can't be policed, stuff and nonsense. Look how they've enforced parking fines or speeding tickets even. Like mugs we still all pay up and just go on resenting them.
Bring it on I say.
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Comments
Treat them for free but levy an on the spot fine for being D&D
So it's okay for sober people to abuse them?
We cant afford to keep funding this socialist shibboleth.
Treatment's free but not the cost of abusing staff. Fine them.
That's not strictly true, the NHS does not pay for all treatments, i.e. removing tattoos. They are a choice in the same way drinking to much is.
If people are so drunk they need A + E, how come they are so much trouble? I guess they may have injured themselves too.
and anyway, none of the parties will actually do this, otherwise they'll just hive it off to private companies like every other outside service
these people are actually trying to help, how anyone can abuse them is just beyond my understanding, it should actually be a criminal offence to threaten or be abusive towards hospital staff,.
http://www.nhs.uk/chq/Pages/2567.aspx?CategoryID=68&SubCategoryID=154
Perhaps if we stopped having successive governments ripping the heart out of the NHS there would be enough funding for this AND providing ample education to people from an early age of the effects of alcohol and its dangers.
It's of paramount importance that we do though.
As long as it's done after the fact and through the courts, then fine.
And no-one should ever be refused treatment except in the most extreme of circumstances.
This ^.
I really feel that there aren't enough penalties for those who abuse or are violent towards emergency workers, such as medical staff and people working in the fire service. However, I'm not sure how enforceable any penalties would be. Perhaps a sustained campaign to reinforce how socially unacceptable it is might have some effect- 'prevention being better than cure' and all that. At the moment, you see the odd poster up in A & E or the GP surgery but if someone is all fired up, they're not going to take notice in the heat of the moment. However, a longer term campaign through different forms of media might embed something in their consciousness.
They do that in NZ and Australia, great idea. Won't do that here. Some places have a drunk bus though.
Drunks shouldn't be taken to A&E but it's a duty of care, crazy though it is.
It probably is but proving a drunk is responsible for his/her actions would be difficult.
All the more reason for the use of video cameras, both for hospital premises/security cameras, and the police with body cameras.