Drunk tanks

My SIL is an ANP in A and E and was working three night shifts ,ending on Christmas Day. He loves his wine but knows when to stop and becomes very cross when he is duty bound to treat those who don’t!. That obviously means that those with genuine illness are made to wait for far too long and lives could easily be put at risk. Roll out the drunk tanks I say, - or as a friend suggested today-hose the drunks down with cold water until they are sober!!

I live in France and am ashamed that the first characterisation (jokey or not) of a Brit is someone drunk. This is our reputation round the world.
Why do we drink in such vast quantaties in the UK? The first thing we noticed when we moved to France was that glasses of wine are so much smaller here. We had become used to a full medium/latge glass as a normal measure (sometimes this is equivalent to a third of a bottle)....probably 3 times larger than a glass of wine served in a french restaurant.

Some brilliant ideas here-wonder if Govt reads this? Something needs to be done that's for sure-drunk tanks help A&E and police for now but as other posters have said, we need to relook at licensing laws. Stop allowing sales of cheap alcohol at all,hours in supermarkets/shops. Needs a BIG campaign like no smoking to show dangers. Meanwhile drunks must be charged for their care-if they can afford the booze they can afford the clear up.

I haven't had time to read all the replies but I find myself torn between outrage that these should be necessary and an understanding that alcoholism is an illness so needs proper treatment. Also Alcoholism is often a symptom of self medication for other mental health disorders so should we be penalising the mentally ill by charging them for treatment? My brother was an alcoholic and I know that he used drink to cope with crippling anxiety and when we got him dry, he turned to prescription drugs to take its place. Charging him for treatment would have just made him more anxious but would not have changed things although being dead a bit earlier might have saved the state money.
There does seem to be a change in attitude to alcohol with the younger generations. I don't drink nowadays and my children were brought up with someone who got pickled on occasions (DH) and me who could have a good time without alcohol. When they reached a certain age we had the conversations about keeping safe (especially the girls) being important and the damage alcohol can do so I was horrified when I heard about my most sensible DD getting completely inebriated so she couldn't stand in the street. Even though she only did it once, she would still have a few drinks before she even stepped out the door and would get beyond what I would consider acceptable. Her friends were even worse. All of them were kids you'd think were "well brought up". I think we just have to make the behaviour as scandalous as drink driving is these days.

Sad that we have to have drunk tanks, but if it keeps them out of A&E perhaps it's a good thing.Maybe some of the young people need Mums who would berate you if you dared to come home with even the faint smell of alcohol on your breath! The last bus home from Edinburgh on a Saturday night reeked with the smell of peppermints being sucked by the majority of the passengers....me included! Didn't fool Mum though!

I have never seen girls weeing in the streets,or seen as many fights or crime even as today
I think it all got worse since we started having nightclubs, drinking until all hours. and clubbing after the pubs
I was of the time when min skirts were all the fashion, but never saw girls go around half dressed,or half naked as they do today,or swearing like they do today,i hate hearing girls using the language they do now, they can easily compete with the men, and actually didn't hear men swear as much as today
Everything has changed for the worse

It wouldn't cost much to get out of your tree at some of our town centre pubs, Jalima. Wine at less than £8 a bottle, double up your spirits for £1.25, buckets of 12 beers
Gosh, Maggiemaybe that's cheap.

If I ask for a white wine spritzer when we're out DH looks at me askance! They're at least £6.50 (a small white wine and some soda water - the profit margin is huge).

The police are to blame for not making an example of a proportion of clubs and pubs caught serving drunk customers. Why the police don't do so I can only guess.

I think they are a good idea to keep drunks out of A&E, but feel sad that they are needed. Education about alcohol abuse is going to be the way forward. I worry about the young people as they don’t realise how vulnerable they are when they are in such a state. I know it would never be allowed but playing back recordings of their drunken behaviour /vomiting etc when they are sober,might make people think twice.

I am in my 80s and in my late teens got drunk once or twice. It made me feel ashamed and I felt so ill the next day that I never wanted to repeat the experience. I was also aware that the lack of self control that accompanied drunkenness left me sexually vulnerable. I can't understand the pleasure in deliberately drinking too much.

When I was young I would have felt thoroughly ashamed of ourselves if I got into that state. What has happened between then and now? It's said that drinks are cheaper but even if my generation could have bought more drinks we still wouldn't have got blotto. There's no shame anymore which seems to have been replaced with pride.

We were in A and E very late one Saturday night waiting with a friend whose husband has been taken ill at home. It was pretty lively, and one paramedic leaned over a stretcher on which was sprawled a young man, clearly completely off his head and stinking of alcohol, and he yelled into this face words to the effect of ' If you're wondering whats going on you are in hospital, wasting the time of everyone here, you useless article'. It was certainly an eye opening experience for us seeing what the staff have to deal with; the filthy state some people are in when they arrive is enough to make you sick, and all self inflicted. The drunk tanks are an excellent idea, and a payment for staff costs and cleaning up the unit should be mandatory.

JanaNana, I like the idea of drunks scrubbing out public toilets. Actually I like the idea of HAVING public toilets.

Bring back public toilets and people would be less likely to pee in the streets maybe? Or is that too radical an idea? ;-)

My friends and I were not aggressive or unpleasant. We were actually hospital worker colleagues from that hospital on a night out. Though my job was office based, have seen nursing staff having to put up with awful behaviour. I would love to see people made responsible for their own actions, particularly when NHS is in such dire straits. Trouble is where do you draw the line with drunk related injuries? Not all drunks are aggressive. If someone has been drinking and falls over who decides how intoxicated they are? In a busy A & E on a Sat night who is going to make that decision?wonder if we could introduce breathalisers? If you are over a certain limit then you have to pay a bill. I do think something needs to be done. x

I damaged a tendon at a fireworks event about 10 years ago. The St John Ambulance volunteers there examined me and advised me to go to A&E. I got a taxi and went home. Why? It was after 9 on a Friday evening and I was alone with a seven year old GD.
I wanted to spare her the sight and sounds of the drunken people who would soon start to be brought in.
Although I saw my GP (the doctor kind!) on the Monday the ankle never completely recovered.

Just an aside - I can't see the title of this thread without singing 'Fariytale of New York'

Ok, as you were!

harrigran We have all been young and how many can say they have not gone over the limit and I was no exception but like you I never in the 60's saw what is now common place in our city centres.
Where would we be without our emergency services and I feel so sorry for the guys and gals who have to deal with these individuals and if hospital treatment is needed for these drunks then a charge should be made for taking up the time and space involved. We are far too soft.

I have to admit to drinking too much in the past but never ended up at a and e. I think this is a good idea though it’s sad that it is necessary. But I do think that those using it should have to pay something when they’ve sobered up.

Actually it is nothing new. I worked in the A@E department of a major city in 1968 as a very junior student nurse. One of my jobs on Friday and Saturday nights was to lay out mattresses on the floor for the drunks to be put on. I then would spend the night walking around checking everyone was still breathing, had not vomited, soiled themselves etc. I like a drink as much as the next person but to be so inebriated that I would need hospital care is something outside my imagination.

Injuries caused by road traffic accidents are not treated free on the NHS, the cost is claimed back from insurance.
Heavy drinkers that deliberately go out to get bladdered should be required to purchase insurance to cover their care during the time they are incapable.
When I was in hospital we were in lockdown because of dru ks running riot in an assessment unit, it was very scary as we were sitting targets.

Many years ago, my mother's police constable cousin in Manchester would , when on the beat with his colleague, drag any drunks around the corner to a doorway on another beat. If this activity several times in a night, didn't allow them to sober up, then a night in a cell was even more uncomfortable.
More recently, I took my 90 year old father, writhing in pain, into A and E, having been recommended to do so by the locum who visited

He was put on a bare metal trolley. The nurse gestured to 2 neighbouring trolleys where there were drunken teenagers. ' they have vomited on to all the spare pillows I could find' she apologised. I wasn't too sure what to say when the father of one girl came over to apologise, too, citing her 18th birthday party as a reason. Dad had to wait 6 hours before a bed and pillow were available.
the father concerned should have taken responsibilty for his puking child.... otherwise a bare cell to allow them to sober up
How many members of staff are taken away from normal service to enable the safe overseeing of those with self inflicted troubles. I reckon my father should have had the treatment required in the hospital, not those who caused their own problems

In our small town two young men have been stabbed and died over Christmas. I have lived here all my life and never have we had people killed when walking home from the pub in the evening. Both the people who died where not the ones drunk.

I think it's a good idea to get these idiots off the streets but I think they should be taken to court and fined otherwise it's an easy option and there's no learning curve.

I watched '999' the other evening, and its clear that the police are taking on ever more complex roles.

The police aren’t to blame, Alistair. They don’t even have enough cells these days to cope with violent and destructive crime on a weekend, most of it also drink and drug related. They’ve nowhere to put a “normal” misbehaving drunk. The cells also have to accommodate a growing number of people with mental health issues who are vulnerable and a danger to themselves and sometimes to others. The police don’t want to lock them up, but often there’s nowhere else for them to go either. The emergency services work together and are all doing their best, but they are all over-stretched and, to my mind, under-resourced.