Make drunks pay for their treatment at A&E, urges patient group

A LEADING patients' group has called for drunk people to be charged for the treatment they receive at accident and emergency units.

The Scotland Patients Association believes that by making drunks pay for medical attention, it will cut down on the abuse suffered by doctors and nurses, particularly during busy weekend periods.

However, the call was criticised last night by doctors, who said charging drunks would "run contrary" to NHS principles.

Margaret Watt, chair of the association, warned that it was important to make some people "think twice" about "causing mayhem" in the nation's hospitals and argued that the payment system - which would see people pay in instalments - could even dissuade them from overindulging in alcohol.

While other medical organisations have conceded that Scotland's health workers are "fighting a war against alcohol", few have offered support for Ms Watt's proposals.

Murdo Fraser MSP, the Scottish Conservative spokesman for health and wellbeing, told The Scotsman there would be "huge" implications if "certain categories of individuals" were charged for their health care.

Ms Watt, who said she planned to raise her idea with health secretary Nicola Sturgeon at a meeting on 10 March, said: "Drunk people are using ambulances, hogging doctors' time in accident and emergency (units], and taking up much-needed hospital beds.

"If MSPs will not support minimum alcohol pricing, then they should bring in a charge for treating alcohol abusers. After all, this is self-inflicted harm we are talking about."

Mr Fraser said the charging idea was an "attractive proposition" in theory but he could not see how it could be implemented.

He said: "How would we recover costs from people, and do we refuse them treatment if they can't pay? Who would make the assessment that their behaviour is unacceptable? If that was the responsibility of medical staff, it would potentially leave them open to greater abuse.

"It would be a major departure for the health service to say certain categories of individuals will have to pay towards their health care because of their behaviour. There would have to be a debate and a consensus before we went down that road, because the implications would be huge."

Describing Ms Watt's proposal as "interesting," his Scottish Labour counterpart, Jackie Baillie, said: "I would not support a change which undermined the principle that NHS care is free at the point of delivery to those who need it."

Dr Brian Keighley, chair of the British Medical Association in Scotland, said that while it was important to tackle the problems with alcohol, the notion of charging inebriated people would "run contrary to the founding principles of the NHS".

Theresa Fyffe, associate director of the Royal College of Nursing in Scotland, said: "While all ideas about saving the NHS money are welcome, they must be thought through.This proposal may actually be more costly than it first appears."

Ms Sturgeon said: "Alcohol misuse costs Scotland 3.56 billion a year - around 900 for every adult. The healthcare costs alone are about 267 million a year. It's vital Scotland faces up to the problem and takes decisive action."