Drunks who end up in A&E should pay for their treatment

Sep 17 2007

A British politician says abusive drunks should be made to pay for hospital treatment.

The Liberal Democrat Norman Lamb suggests that people should face the consequences of their actions and if they are "foul and abusive" to hospital staff they should pay for their treatment.

Mr Lamb also believes pubs should pay if they repeatedly send customers to emergency hospital departments.

The Liberal Democrats are meeting this week in Brighton for the party's annual conference and have published a paper on local National Health Services (NHS) services.

The 'Lib Dems' are proposing to create a 'patient's contract' which will set down the entitlement of all patients, regardless of where they live along with a local health tax offset by cuts in national income tax.

The party's health policy working group will consider the new initiatives and, says Mr Lamb, address the issue of violent patients; Mr Lamb believes there is a case for imposing a financial penalty.

Mr Lamb says those who go out on a Friday or a Saturday night and get very drunk and then end up in accident and emergency, are foul and abusive to already overworked staff, in those circumstances, should be asked to pay for their care.

Norman Lamb who is the Liberal Democrat health spokesman suggests decisions should be taken at local level, by locally-elected health boards, because different areas have different health priorities.

He also suggests that NHS services should be de-centralised to create more democracy regarding decisions about hospitals and services across the country.

A spokeswoman for the NHS says they are already devolving decision-making so that the NHS responds to the needs and wants of the public and placing more emphasis on empowering patients and staff in order to deliver quality health care.