Drunk tanks

Friday/Saturday drunks are not sick Durhamjen nor are they without means, alcohol is an expensive luxury

The most obvious reason that people stop a behaviour is when the repercussions are worse than the pleasure they get. I think tighter measures on all anti social drink related behaviours would help.

Not a running hose, please. Think of all that waste water.

There is some disgusting behaviour from drunks. NHS staff often have to deal with the fallout. I think drunk tanks are a good idea, but I think the people admitted should be given a bill when they leave. I'd like drunks to pay for their treatment at A& E, but if someone is admitted with injuries, someone has to assess whether it's an alcohol related injury. Out with middle aged friends for dinnner and drinks when my friend was jostled and slipped and twisted her ankle. We had to take her to A & E. We'd all had few glasses of wine and were a little tiddly, but by no means drunk. So how to draw the line?

I sat with my mum on a trolley in a hospital corridor while at least 2 drunks had beds - the swearing - the vomiting - all witnessed by my ill mum - I had seen enough after an hour plus and sought out a nurse - begging her to find my mum somewhere more private - no joy
So I totally agree - no drunks to be taken to A&E - throw them in a converted trailer with a running hose - why should others have to wipe the vomit and god knows what else

That makes sense OldMeg. If they can afford to pour £50 or more down their necks, only to throw it all back up again later in the evening; they can afford to pay for the cost of their care. As for comparing recreational binge drinking to drug/alcohol and smoking addiction; I don't think theyre the same. I don't think you can conflate someone with a recognised addiction and someone who goes on a weekend drinking binge.

If it was up to me I'd have them all charged with being drunk and disorderly once they'd sobered up in the drunk tank, then they would be fined at least the amount it cost to keep them there until sober. That way the drunks would pay for their own care, not society. I do think society needs a rethink, but that won't change overnight.

lack of means???

Yes, I agree with your photo DJ but those who regularly spend a fortune, usually at weekends, drinking themselves into a drunker stupor, don’t lack the means in thst sense.

If they can afford that, then they can afford to contribute to their bed and breakfast (as it were) courtesy of the NHS.

Agreed, glammy.

I too believe that if someone gets into such a drunken state that they need NHS assistance, then they SHOULD pay for their treatment.

I'm no prude, but I find the thought of girls who wee in the street, and brawl like lads, appalling. It's certainly not the way that we behaved when I was growing up in the 70's, but I get the impression from what I see on TV that this is becoming something that girls appear to be proud of and wonder what happened to self respect.

The pubs and clubs should pay for the drunk tanks and for the NHS staff who tend to those people who are over drunk.

...just as they do for extra policing.

The fact that those people were going to A&E would probably have remained hidden to most of us had our government continued spending our money like water.

Well this opens a great debate on what the NHS should provide in the way of care. Should we stop treating those who have smoked for years and now have COPD and probably several smoking related illnesses, or those who have in the past used drugs or drink and are now also suffering with related illnesses. What about obesity which can lead to diabetes, weak joints etc. Our NHS was supposed to treat those who are ill or injured and hopefully make them well. We now have an NHS that is trying to cure everything under the sun! Knowone could have predicted the things that people expect to be able to get from our NHS now! I absolutely think that there are areas of medical help and expertise that we the general public should pay for but that's another story!

Hear! Hear! henetha and other posters of similar comment. The NHS is in enough financial difficulty without having to sort out binge drinkers who think it's the 'thing to do'.

A big tank of water, a hefty fine, paying for medical services, that's what is needed to clean up our city and town centres
of this disgusting behaviour.

I was going to mention that, harmless.

There is evidence that the youngest generation (of over 18s ) are drinking less than the previous generation, preferring to stay at home with their smartphones and laptops. Obviously binge drinking is still happening but the trend is for less than ten years ago.

Surely cafe culture can only be a good thing, giving people places for socialising that doesn't necessarily involve alcohol. Coffee shops are everywhere in town centres now. It's sad to see the closure of the traditional pub - the ones that survive tend to be offering good food and coffee. In my area there are lovely coffee shops that are actually owned by brewery chains.

I only said close down pubs because four have been closed down over Christmas and New Year in Newcastle.

the minimum pricing initiative which starts here next May will also mean the end of the cheap multipacks...20 cans for £7 I saw advertised yesterday and while that isn't a problem for a lot of people who will stock their drnks cabinet/fridge and use it wisely there are a multitude of young folk ...and older drinkers who will down that in one sitting.Supermarket "deals" are a huge part of the problem ,thats why the weekend drunks GET drunk before they go out...its TOO cheap.The retailers should be contributing to the cost of the drunk tanks.I allso had a sister who was an alcoholic ...she died after "celebrating" her birthday...she choked on vomit.Maybe if there had been a local drunk tank she would have survived...not that it would have stopped her drinking ...but sadly the need to stop has to come from the drinker...no one else will ever influence them

Definitely no to closing down pubs, it's a shame quite a few have gone already. At their best they are places where people socialise and inns/drinking houses have been around in some sort of form since the middle ages. I perceive that a lot of young people get their drink stash from the supermarket before they go out clubbing. God knows what the answer is without becoming some sort of prohibition type of society, banning anything just means it all goes underground. It's a shame we can't emulate the southern European way of drinking, drunkeness does seem more prevelant in northern parts of Europe, maybe it's the lack of sunshine who knows. I suppose young people need to learn about where the demon drink can lead, a sustained anti smoking campaign seems to have worked because I read somewhere the levels of smoking in Britain are very low now.

Closing down pubs wouldn't resolve the problem. Cheap alcohol is available from off licenses that specifically aim to sell alcohol as cheaply as possible, hence the Scottish government initiatives to have a minimum price per unit, which begins in May. There are businesses that operate in my area who will deliver cheap alcohol, directly to your door 24/7.

Close down pubs?

Wonder if there's any way to get rid of this so called cafe culture? Trying to get the genie back into the bottle? It's the availability of cheap alcohol 24/7 at the root of it all. Shall we start a petition?

PS I think the drunk tanks are a necessary evil and a sign of the times. I imagine there's a score system, something like they get a caution the first three times they get picked up and then they get charged with being drunk and disorderly (or whatever they call it now). Something like that.

My Step-Brother is the son of a police inspector and when he was 19 he got prosecuted for weeing in somebody's garden on the way home from the pub on one night. No preferential treatment. Mind you that was in Scotland where you get away with far less than in England.

Two years ago I was on an A&E ward waiting for a bed on the Neurology ward. A young woman was admitted who was so drunk she'd walked across a dual carriage way and was hit by a car. She'd got up and carried on walking down the road. She was eventually picked up sitting on the side of the road after the driver of the car phoned 999. When she sobered up a bit, she got dressed and left the ward when the nurses weren't looking. Three hours later she was back in the same bed (which by then had seen off two other patients). She'd taken a taxi to her boyfriend's house where he split up with her, so she took an overdose and cut her wrist with a broken bottle. He'd called 999 and that's how she ended up back in the bed opposite me. In the morning a social worker arranged temporary accommodation for her to go to when she discharged. She left the hospital again without telling anyone intending to go to a party in Birmingham.

I was on the A&E ward for 5 days and I'd never seen anything like it in my life. I never slept a wink because of the game of musical beds going on around me. I felt like I was the only normal person in the place. The nurses kept apologising to me.

We've always had drunks, they were called 'drunk and disorderly ' and they were put into police cells to sober up. Now there are far too many to sleep it off in police cells, and indeed clogg up A+E. So we can thank Tony Blair with his 'cafe culture ' idea, for liberalising the alcohol laws (hides behind parapet.)