The Hospital - on channel 4 at the moment!

vixarooni

personally i think our universities are to blame for the alcohol culture we have, and the pubs surrounding the universities ranking in the money from students.

I do disagree with you there vmf4, the thing i hate more than anything in this world is when people have to lose out because of someone elses actions. Why shouldnt i be able to buy alcohol at a reasonable price just because others go beserk on it. Im no angel, i get drunk, i probably will do on monday but i have never once been sick, been involved with the police or caused criminal damage by my drunk actions, so why should i have to pay over the odds for something just because others abuse it?

melancholly

vixarooni wrote: »

personally i think our universities are to blame for the alcohol culture we have, and the pubs surrounding the universities ranking in the money from students.

sadly i think the problem with alcohol starts well before many teenagers are old enough to get to uni (not that university lifestyles help, but they aren't the root cause of the problem!)

Loopy_Girl

razorbladekisses wrote: »

What about the people that end up in hospital because of smoking, those that have developed diabetes because of obesity e.t.c should we bill them too? I know some people will say it's different, but is it really, it's still a lifestyle choice.

Every single person on the planet has some kind of lifestyle choice that may make them need the NHS.

You could be the healthiest person alive (don't drink, smoke, eat well etc etc) and go yomping up the hills every week for the 'fresh clean air'. All it takes is one slip and you need air ambulanced off the hill and medical treatment.

Going on other comments then this person should pay for treatment surely? His choice to go up the hills...same as another person's choice to drink?

I fail to see the difference. No one can say they live a perfect life and no one should be exempt from NHS treatment.

A poster commented earlier that money spent on drunks could be used for cancer treatment. Still feel the same if the cancer sufferer smoked 40 a day and had been told 20 years ago to stop but didn't? Or the sun worshipper who could afford several foreign holidays a year and had skin cancer? Or the breast cancer that was caused by excessive drinking?

See what I mean? You can't say that one person deserves treatment more than an other especially when the service was set up to treat all.

Loopy_Girl

VfM4meplse wrote: »

I really believe Liam Donaldson has got it right here, if the population refuses to use alcohol responsibly then it should be priced out of the reach of the majority and seen as a luxury item. The alcohol industry could be transforming the country by shifting it's focus to address unmet health needs, there is still a good profit to be made here. Maybe then the NHS could truly turn it's attention and resources to the prevention of illness.

But the Goverment won't do that as they will lose the huge revenue generated by alcohol.

Same with cigarettes - we keep getting told how bad they are for us and pictures getting printed on the packets. Millions and millions getting spent to promote stopping with the help of the NHS.

Why don't they just ban them? Because of the revenue that's why. Yes the NHS would be able to spend more time on other things if cigs and alcohol were banned but there would be no nurses to do it as the budget would be drastically cut as there was no revenue from them.

I'm not one of those people (and I am a smoker) who bleats about the 'tax I pay could pay for a hospital wing' yaka yaka but I do beleive in the fact that I live in the UK and am therefore able to access the NHS for whatever reason I need it - and I firmly believe that should be the same for every single person that has access to it too.

funguy

The NHS is never going to afford to continue treating the increasing obesity/alcohol/smoking related illnesses if they continue to rise at current levels. This is in additon to all the other stuff obviously that the NHS provides....I think we are rapidly looking at a full or partial insurance based system where alcohol/smoking and weight will be taken into account before working out your monthly premiums! This is probably the only true way of people being charged according to their lifestyle choices.....if you choose a healthy lifestyle, your premiums will be low....if you choose an unhealthy one, your premiums will be high!....

arunadasi

funguy wrote: »

The NHS is never going to afford to continue treating the increasing obesity/alcohol/smoking related illnesses if they continue to rise at current levels. This is in additon to all the other stuff obviously that the NHS provides....I think we are rapidly looking at a full or partial insurance based system where alcohol/smoking and weight will be taken into account before working out your monthly premiums! This is probably the only true way of people being charged according to their lifestyle choices.....if you choose a healthy lifestyle, your premiums will be low....if you choose an unhealthy one, your premiums will be high!....

It's the only fair way, as well.
I really don't see why people with healthy lifestyles should have to support heavy drinkers/smokers/junk food gluttons.

HelenYorkshire

Broadly speaking, that sounds like a good plan to me.
BUT - define a "healthy lifestyle"? Like was said earlier - is the athlete coming in with sprains and strains somehow "better / more deserving" than the person who was prescribed steroids and has shot up in weight / obesity?

Nothing is ever black and white.

Having worked in the NHS previously, I would say that a lot of these negative, sweeping comments by staff coe about through frustration, understaffing, long hours, lack of appreciation, so on and so forth.
I haven't done nursing / direct care but after 12 hours with no breaks I'd be cursing the next teen drunk to come through the doors.

I wish I had a better idea for the whole thing

PS - the old "on benefits" argument can also fall down - esp in cases where someone is too ill to work so has the double whammy of needing more care on a lower budget.

funguy

this week's programme is on now!...

funguy

Just shown a female who is high risk for c-section but she wont listen to anything the consultant is telling her as she knows better!! Never mind the issue that she is grossly overweight and continues to smoke during her pregnancy too.......absolutely ridiculous!

dmg24

funguy wrote: »

Just shown a female who is high risk for c-section but she wont listen to anything the consultant is telling her as she knows better!! Never mind the issue that she is grossly overweight and continues to smoke during her pregnancy too.......absolutely ridiculous!

At first I thought I had tuned into Harry Enfield ... was that not Waynetta Slob?! She had a phobia to needles, yet had several piercings!