A key way to dealing with the over-refreshed
IT’S HARD to believe that not that many years ago people thought nothing of mixing alcohol with driving a car. Now we have breathalysers, seat belts are compulsory, and none of us – even young people, who are historically more inclined to overdo the booze – drink and drive.
But our NHS is more overstretched than ever, partly the result of people needing hospital treatment simply because they’ve drunk too much.
They may not now be driving legless – and hurrah for that – but where are the friends to stagger home with their mates before they get so blotto they need medical attention?
Before you write me off as a grumpy old git, I confess that Mr F and I have blurred, but happy, memories of drunken nights when we were younger. Sometimes we made sure our friends got home safely; at other times we relied on them to do the same for us.
At parties everyone would crash out on the floor, sober up, and return home the next morning.
Now, when the pubs, clubs and bars turn out, instead of riding home in a shared taxi, young people are being scooped up from pavements to go to hospital where they arrive alongside more serious cases. What happened to being marched to the local cells for being ‘drunk and disorderly’ which allowed the sozzled to cool off, and probably deterred them from overdoing it again.
It has been suggested that drunks who are clogging up our struggling hospitals should be charged for their services. I’m all in favour of it.
Another idea mooted to prop up our ailing NHS is means testing for non-essential cosmetic surgery; particularly when cancer patients are being denied expensive lifesaving drugs.
Just think how many urgent operations could be carried out by surgeons who were formerly faffing about with designer noses and boob jobs.
Talking of fake breasts – and now I’m on a roll – I’m tired of hearing so many female Z-list celebrities described as ‘successful businesswomen’, and when I look them up, all they’ve done is install a web cam in their bedroom where they spend all day displaying their Double FFs to anyone who cares to pay.
Is that what it takes to get into the Chamber of Commerce these days? I suppose you’d definitely get a job with Donald Trump, maybe even be declared businesswoman of the year. Don’t get me started…