Should drunks be treated on special Booze Buses?

Stupidest thing I ever read all time, all my life.

NOBODY should be refused treatment. Ever. I cannot believe the RCN has come up with this, as it goes against everything the healthcare profession stands for. Hippocrates would lose his strawberry floating gooseberry fool over this.

Somebody Else's Problem » Tue Jun 17, 2014 3:42 pm wrote:NOBODY should be refused treatment. Ever. I cannot believe the RCN has come up with this, as it goes against everything the healthcare profession stands for. Hippocrates would lose his strawberry floating gooseberry fool over this.

I would suggest that every possible care should be taken to treat somebody who is violent towards healthcare providers, but at some point the safety of nurses and doctors should take become the main concern. I say this not out of anger that someone is showing disrespect to staff, merely that it is conceivable that it would be impossible to provide care to someone who is too violent and too dangerous. I don't like saying that, as it appears cold and ignorant, but if it's just not possible to treat someone who really needs it I'd suggest that the Police could quite possibly do a better job in looking after them - which would save distress to staff and *hopefully* keep the violent individual from harming themselves even more.

Winckle » Tue Jun 17, 2014 2:04 pm wrote:Why don't we increase funding and service capacity?

This is one of two things that should happen. The other is how about people learn to drink responsibly and not get so hammered they have no control over their body anymore. There really is no excuse to drink that much.

Qikz » Tue Jun 17, 2014 3:29 pm wrote:

Winckle » Tue Jun 17, 2014 2:04 pm wrote:Why don't we increase funding and service capacity?

This is one of two things that should happen. The other is how about people learn to drink responsibly and not get so hammered they have no control over their body anymore. There really is no excuse to drink that much.

What about the need to party really strawberry floating hard? Seems like a top excuse to me.

ITT; Lotus is an idiot and nobody clicked the link.

first line of the article wrote:Drunks should be treated in booze buses parked in city centres or held in "drunk tanks" to stop overcrowding in NHS casualty units, nurses have said.

Falsey » Tue Jun 17, 2014 5:03 pm wrote:

Qikz » Tue Jun 17, 2014 3:29 pm wrote:

Winckle » Tue Jun 17, 2014 2:04 pm wrote:Why don't we increase funding and service capacity?

This is one of two things that should happen. The other is how about people learn to drink responsibly and not get so hammered they have no control over their body anymore. There really is no excuse to drink that much.

What about the need to party really strawberry floating hard? Seems like a top excuse to me.

I know how to drink sensibly. I also know how to get totally obliterated. If I want to do that then why should I have to justify it to anyone? Then again, I wouldn't expect help off anyone if I injured myself due to my own stupidity. Wouldn't turn it down, mind...

The NHS is the personification of a welfare state. The idea was that everyone can get treated regardless of money, background or circumstance.

With such a medical system in place, you can't suddenly decide not to treat people because they have an "undesirable" condition.

It's no less a legitimate accident or emergency than any other. People don't drink and plan on going to hospital.

What next? People who are crap at DIY shouldn't be treated when they hammer a nail into their finger.

Only acceptable injuries please.

It's also ironic as people who smoke/drink heavily pay hefty tax on such habits.

Ridiculous idea. Especially when nurses are some of the worst behaved people when they are out drinking.

http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/ ... 16263.html

http://www.dailyfail.co.uk/news/article ... ravan.html

http://www.echo-news.co.uk/news/2279914 ... ving_away/

http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/ ... ics-875210

I agree with a A&E department refusing to treat violent people (whether drunk or not) but special buses for people that are drunk is retarded.

You're still not reading the article.

Drunks should be treated in booze buses parked in city centres or held in "drunk tanks" to stop overcrowding in NHS casualty units, nurses have said.

The head of the Royal College of Nursing called for pilot schemes to be set up to relieve pressure on Accident & Emergency (A&E) units struggling to cope with high numbers of binge drinkers.

Harry Bizzle » Tue Jun 17, 2014 7:09 pm wrote:You're still not reading the article.

Drunks should be treated in booze buses parked in city centres or held in "drunk tanks" to stop overcrowding in NHS casualty units, nurses have said.

The head of the Royal College of Nursing called for pilot schemes to be set up to relieve pressure on Accident & Emergency (A&E) units struggling to cope with high numbers of binge drinkers.

thanks harry, atleast some people read articles.

I read the article, I disagree with it.

I think it's a perfectly reasonable idea.

Weight needs to be taken off the back of A&E departments. The idea that a cabin or bus with healthcare professionals capable of administering fluids and doing simple tasks such as suturing being "ridiculous" suddenly becomes a lot more reasonable when you consider that the alternative may or not involve police time, the ambulance service, a long wait in A&E, the time of an A&E doctor and in possibly the time of an already stretched on-call medical team.

Harry Bizzle » Tue Jun 17, 2014 10:29 pm wrote:I think it's a perfectly reasonable idea.

Weight needs to be taken off the back of A&E departments. The idea that a cabin or bus with healthcare professionals capable of administering fluids and doing simple tasks such as suturing being "ridiculous" suddenly becomes a lot more reasonable when you consider that the alternative may or not involve police time, the ambulance service, a long wait in A&E, the time of an A&E doctor and in possibly the time of an already stretched on-call medical team.

This makes a lot of sense with some funding coming from the bars and clubs in the area where the bus would be.

Harry Bizzle » Tue Jun 17, 2014 10:29 pm wrote:I think it's a perfectly reasonable idea.

Weight needs to be taken off the back of A&E departments. The idea that a cabin or bus with healthcare professionals capable of administering fluids and doing simple tasks such as suturing being "ridiculous" suddenly becomes a lot more reasonable when you consider that the alternative may or not involve police time, the ambulance service, a long wait in A&E, the time of an A&E doctor and in possibly the time of an already stretched on-call medical team.

That sounds reasonable, but maybe you should read the whole article?

The head of the Royal College of Nursing called for pilot schemes to be set up to relieve pressure on Accident & Emergency (A&E) units struggling to cope with high numbers of binge drinkers.
Dr Peter Carter said too many casualty patients were being left in fear because they were surrounded by aggressive and bloodied drunks "careering around the place" after falling into fights.
He spoke after nurses at the RCN's annual conference in Liverpool yesterday said drunks should be kept out of A&E because their intoxication was "no accident."
Nurses said casualty units were under "intense pressure" from increasing numbers of drunk patients, with 2 million visits a year now linked to alcohol.

This part reads less as setting up mobile first aid centres and more as scaremongering "oh my god drunk people run amok in A&E!".

How do you decide who should be kept out of A&E? One pint of beer? Two? Two pints plus a shot? What if somebody is sober in a city centre and gets punched? Do they get put in the booze bus or are they deemed worthy of a proper hospital visit?

Sounds good in theory, the staff shouldn't have to be abused by drunken pricks who are using it as a place to sober up. Kick them to the curb, trash, bus whatever. Maybe it will stop binge drinking if you won't have someone nursing you back to health.

However that sounds hard to implement. How drunk do you have to be before treatment is refused? What happens if you are drunk but well behaved? Who is to blame if you choke on your vomit after getting refused treatment? What happens if your drink was spiked etc?

I think a much more reasonable solution is to charge/fine drunk people for wasting A&E's time. With that money you can then acquire extra staff and resources. Because it isn't really fair that they have to deal with some of the gooseberry fool they deal with.

Isn't this system already in place? It is in Essex at least. There are buses around in town centres with people that have basic first aid skills, which allow people to sit down out of the cold and rehydrate if they're heavily intoxicated. These buses also liaise with local police officers.

They will then forward anyone with critical injuries or other things that need urgent medical attention (like surgery, stomach pumps etc) to the local A&E/hospital.

Nobody is refused care.

The RCN is getting worse as their conference goes on

http://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/jun/18/nurses-debate-10-fee-to-visit-gp

Not a new idea. There are similar fees for people who go to hospital in some of Europe.


The Czech Republic charges a flat £1 fee for all healthcare visits, and £2 a day if you're admitted. I think the idea is to discourage frequent attenders and malingering.

Frankly, I don't see the point. As soon as one person who should have sought treatment doesn't because of cost, the system has failed. There's also increased costs for those who don't attend until later than they otherwise would have and let their problem get worse.



Frankly, the government need to stop spending money on useless crap and spend more on the NHS.