Great! I Now Work In An ‘Alcohol Action Area’!

I hope that means I get served at the bar quicker…

A hospital consultant has welcomed Southend being declared an Alcohol Action Area.

Hmmm, really?

… but says tougher action is needed.

Given any description of the ‘action’ to be taken is woefully lacking, I’d like to know how he reaches that conclusion, but still…

Dr Gary Bray, consultant gastroenterologist and hepatologist at Southend Hospital, spoke after it was announced the borough was to be one of 20 areas where new measures are to be introduced.

These include fighting drink fuelled crime and disorder and the damage caused to people’s health.

Details..? Anyone? Bueller?

He said: “As someone who sees a lot of liver disease and other alcohol related problems caused by rising alcoholism and consumption of cheap drinks, I find it very concerning.

“Being able to stay in a club, drinking until 4am, must fuel violence and problems.

It must? Gosh! That’s based on…what?

“I welcome any action which gives local authorities more control.

Well, of course you do, you are clearly a nannying little NuPuritan fussbucket with a god complex.

“I think, however, that expecting big drinks companies to act responsibly is very unlikely, especially as they lobby so consistently in Parliament.

Unlike doctors, who never, ever do such things…

“If the Government was serious about alcohol reduction, it would introduce minimum unit pricing for alcohol, which has been shown to reduce alcohol related deaths in Canada.”

Well, that’s not necessarily so, and it seems they are already reducing quite nicely all on their own:

The most recent figures of teenagers treated for binge drinking illnesses at Southend Hospital show they are falling.

In 2010, the number of under-18s treated as inpatients at the hospital was 18. This figure fell to 11 in 2011, and to ten in 2012.

Up to the end of June last year, just three children were seen at the hospital for alcohol-related illnesses.

Whoops!