Drunks 'should have to pay the NHS for treatment'
High cost: The NHS will have to spend £25m on dealing with binge drinkers this weekend, a think tank says
Drunks who have their stomachs pumped in hospital should be charged £532, a report into alcohol-related harm claims.
Dealing with the effects of binge-drinking is expected to cost the NHS £25million this Bank Holiday weekend, according to an analysis by the Policy Exchange think tank.
It says that hospitals should start recovering the costs from drinkers.
Similar arrangements are already in place to recover treatment costs from motor insurers following road accidents, the study points out.
The Policy Exchange, regarded as Britain's largest centre-right think tank, also calls for a shakeup of the way alcohol is taxed to make beers and wines with lower alcohol content cheaper than their stronger counterparts.
Medium to low strength beer, such as Brakspear bitter containing 3.4 per cent alcohol by volume, would fall in price from £2.53 a pint to £2.30, while Kronenbourg lager at 5 per cent ABV would rise from £2.72 to £2.83 and Leffe Blonde beer at 6.6 per cent ABV would cost £3.36.
The report argues that the changes would encourage the drinks trade to reduce alcohol content slightly, reducing harm without hitting their profitability or curbing drinkers' enjoyment significantly.
Most watched News videos
- New video shows Epstein laughing and chasing young women
- British Airways passengers turn flight into a church service
- Epstein describes himself as a 'tier one' sexual predator
- Skier dressed as Chewbacca brutally beaten in mass brawl
- Buddhist monks in Thailand caught with a stash of porn
- Two schoolboys plummet out the window of a moving bus
- Melinda Gates says Bill Gates must answer questions about Epstein
- Police dog catches bag thief who pushed woman to the floor
- Sarah Ferguson 'took Princesses' to see Epstein after prison
- Holly Valance is shut down by GB News for using slur
- China unveils 'Star Wars' warship that can deploy unmanned jets
- JD Vance turns up heat on Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor
