Fees under consideration for drunken A&E patients in Northern Ireland

New proposals being considered in Northern Ireland suggest fining alcohol and drug users for visiting A&E departments.

The proposals have the support of health experts, who are concerned that the NHS is being used to treat people who have become ill through their own irresponsible behaviour. The health minister for Northern Ireland, Edwin Poots, stated that the proposal had its merits.

Mr Poots explained: ‘The United Kingdom has a great principle of health care, free at the point of need to all who need it irrespective of their ability to pay for it. I think it is a wonderful principle but I think on occasions it is abused and we sometimes need to look at how we can make sure that abuse doesn’t take place.’

The new proposals could mean that drunks are charged a set fee every time they visit A&E for treatment as the result of alcohol abuse. A stomach pump can cost the NHS between £600 and £3,500 per person, and the number of people requiring this and similar treatments is rising. In England during 2013, 1.22 million people required NHS attention for alcohol and drug-related illnesses, costing £3.5bn; in 2001, this figure was £1.47bn.

Senior nurses from the Royal College of Nurses voiced their disapproval in June. Some claimed that drunks diverted care away from the elderly and sick in A&E and should be banned, while others suggested special drunk tanks where drunks can sober up without causing distress to hospital staff or to other patients.