To think if you have to call an ambulance because you have injured yourself drunk then ....

[stoppinchingthedummy]

you should have to pay for it??

I may be being unreasonable but after an incident i witnessed this weekend it suddenly dawned on me that some people get so blind drunk ,fall over ,bang their head or whatever they may do and then an ambulance is called and they are taken to a&e all at the tax payers expense and more to the point taking paramedics away from someone who might be desperatly ill needing it?

yanbu

same can be said for smokers using nhs resources...

And what if they have no money?

Shall we let them haemorrage to death or what?

YANBU. I agree with you.

Well you'll need to be charging all those thousands of people falling out of clubs drunk and fighting every friday and saturday night as well then for taking police away from 'real crime'. Where does it stop?

do you think the same about those who get injured playing sport or cycling or doing DIY?

Well, most of these people ill b tax payers so do pay a share themselves

So I think YANBU but also YABU- can I take IGWYCF (i get where you come from) and suggest a set fine instead? Otherwise everyone'd just say the local drunk hit them and call the police and rack up the costs, or not call 999 when they need to because they were scared how much a call out costs- and rightly so, it is ££££.

£50 a case would help though.

Yea ilovetiffany but thats a whole other thread ....notnowbernard if they had no money would they be out blind drunk?! maybe if you had no money and were out you would think twice about getting blind drunk if you knew you had to pay for any treatment once under the influence.

No, if it's the UK. If I wanted a user pays system I'd go to the USA, I want one that is there for anyone and everyone. You can't start discriminating about why it's needed. If you do that, then maybe they shouldn't come out to homebirths for example, after all if you have chosen to have it at home that would be your own doing. Or someone who falls off of a roof without a safety line...

But an accident is an accident. Of course people can behave irresponsibly but where do you draw the line? A woman who's had a couple of glasses of wine? Somebody quite drunk but the victim of something? Somebody has to make the decision about who is entitled and who isn't and it's just not practicable. The NHS doesn't discriminate. And it's right that it doesn't, difficult as it may be sometimes.

Yes chippingin is right I guess so change mine (though my HB was medicallya dvised thanking you muchly, purveyor of 35 minute labours that I am LOL)

I thought the system was free at the point of use, not free?

So taxpayers are paying. So should they pay twice? or should only people who dno't pay ni pay at the point of use?

Oh yes, because everyone going out drinking would think 'Ah, I'll keep £50 to one side in case I need an ambulance'

Are you t-total stoppin?

I don't think you are necessarily BU. But it opens a whole can of worms.

Will people who keep themselves fit by choosing to engage in dangerous sports have to pay?

If you choose to wear rediculous high heels and break your ankle, should you pay?

Will people who are drunk, but cannot afford to pay, not call an ambulance and potentially die as a result?

I know where you are coming from, but if it was such a simple solution, they would have done it years ago.

We need to make a great long list of "non deserving cases then"

Difficult to know where to stop.

Say if someone has 8 children, but haemmorhages when the have the 9th? That's a bit ott, right, perhaps they should have treatment witheld.

What about overweight people? Are they ok if it is just a pound or two over? What about if it is 20 stone overweight?

Last week I shut dd's finger in the car door (by accident). Thankfully she didn't need medical care. If she did, it was entirely my fault. Should I have been billed?

Interestingly people do get billed if they are involved in a RTA (but generally the insurance pays)

Yea some good points to be fair where would it stop ..yes peachy a set fine perhaps ...i just witnessed someone completly shit faced cut his head open from falling into a wall and then off in an ambulance and it suddenly dawned on me that as grown adults this should not happen so easily [roll]

I now sound like im old when infact im not 30 yet !!

It's a silly idea, it would cost more money to prove that their injury was actually due to the alcohol they consumed.

It's quite possible to have a few drinks and have an accident that happens to be unrelated.

Would that mean that everyone who had an RTA from speeding should have to pay? Those who've had a heart attack who ate unhealthily? Someone who has an accident doing an extreme sport?
The list would go on and on.
YANBU, but if you make a rule for one self inflicted injury, it would only be fair to make rules for all of them.

Sorry, OP, but IMVHO you are either hopelessly naive or a bit fick

I know, let's ban ALL risky behaviours

yanbu in theory but same for obesity, smokers and drugs. Having worked in A&E for 10 years drunk people are a massive pita but so are 70% of the rest of the population.

I'm teetotal and can see why it wouldn't work.

DH had to call an ambulance when 24hrs after a RTA he decided to do a weights workout (muppet), damaged his neck and couldn't move. He paid in that he was wearing batman pyjamas and the neighbours saw him. That's karma and that's free too.

Pah! X-posted with onepiece, who said it far better than I did!

YABU

You'll have drunk people hiding/running from ambulances/refusing treatment.

Sorry to be blunt, but it's a daft idea.

Making binge drinking as socially unacceptable as drink driving would be a better start.

When i was in a RTA years ago (about 22 years) my insurance company got a bill from the local hospital for my x-rays. Accident wasn't even my fault - a car ploughed into the back of me.

Wonder if this still happens.

No no im not t- total but i know when to stop ,i make sure i dont get so fecking drunk that i hurt myself ...yes i guess the nhs shouldnt discriminate and like i said accidents are accident so of course should not be billed ..