Saturday 28 November 2009

Have Yourself A Righteous Little Christmas


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.




8 comments:

Northampton Saint said...

Fuck it....i'm saving up all my loylaty card points and blowing the lot on booze this christmas. All my nectar points were gained from Tanglefoot, Strongbow and filling the car anyhow

banned said...

A recent 'study' informed me that it takes between 6-8 minutes for alcohol to affect the brain. Really ? Do they think that I had not already realised that for myself or was the advice directed at Moslems and teetotalers ?

subrosa said...

Gawd, I'm so pleased I'm the age I am when I read about these studies etc.

When's it going to end?

JuliaM said...

"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."

Spot on!

I do have a great deal of sympathy with ambulance staff and paramedics; you only have to read their blogs to see the time they waste sorting out people who have overindulged or who are gaming the system.

But, at heart, doesn't that mean the system is rotten to start with? Not that we should put up with all this pointless 'advice'?

Anonymous said...

I agree with Julia,our NI contributions are paying for these p**sheads to get carted off to a&e and wasting ambulance time.They are not taught personal responsibility by the nanny state,every little thing is dial 999.There ought to be a charge levied for wasting an ambulances time.
If you read the ambulance blogs it's epidemic proportions.I'm not a killjoy and have often been drunk meself but not in the state you see them now.

James Higham said...

I detest this time of year.

Anonymous said...

Its so bloody miserable today that after reading this I'm now going for a pint or three.
Cheers!

Anonymous said...

@anon 14.59 - spare a thought for the smokers at the pub that the Righteous have condemned to the cold and wet.

Jay