Righteous miserablists linking party revellers with death and illness to others? It must be Christmas.
The London Ambulance Service has set up a booze hospital for festive revellers a week earlier than last year.
Duty Station Officer for City and Hackney Nick Lesslar said: "Every minute that we spend mopping up vomit, is a minute that could have been spent helping a patient who is seriously ill or injured".
The annual dog whistle to risk averse brow-furrowers everywhere has begun, folks. Rejoice.
As is the custom, though, it's a deliberate misdirection. What is really happening is that duties are being re-arranged to fit with demands on the NHS from those who pay for it. If services are truly being denied to seriously ill or injured patients in other areas, then I'd say it reflects more on poor management of resources and that there are NHS managers out there who are due a P45.
Friendly advice is fine, Nick, but can we have less of the scaremongery and guilt-fostering please?
Interestingly, amongst the advice for festive party-goers from the Liverpool Street team is:
Eat before drinking to help soak up alcohol;
Which would appear to be one of the barstool myths reported by the Independent this week (as spotted by the Curmudgeon).
It isn't true that eating a massive meal full of carbohydrates before you head out on the piss will stop you from getting paralytic. It is true, however, that having a full stomach slows down the rate at which the alcohol is absorbed into your blood stream so you might not feel drunk as quickly as usual. However, studies show that this just inclines people to consume more booze.
Studies? Studies? More than one? So why are NHS staff ignoring them and giving potentially dangerous advice?
Expect tons more of this type of reporting before you sit down to eat your roast turkey in just under a month's time ... and don't expect to enjoy that either as the imposition of guilt on your annual blowout will start to emerge in the next couple of weeks, I reckon.