Working in a hospital emergency department must be messy and unpleasant many a time victims of accidents and crime are carried in. But how much worse it must be when the patient is the architect of her or her own misfortune by drinking to excess.
And if that is not despicable enough, the drunk and his or her inebriated companions are often abusive and violent to emergency room staff trying to deal with them. "Absolutely diabolical," our heading on this story yesterday, was the gentlest description doctors could have given.
They said it wasn't uncommon for to be vomited on, spat at, verbally abused, threatened, pushed and wrestled with as they were trying to help these people. Others were semi-comatose, unable to speak and lying in pools of their own vomit. As one doctor put it, they are "over" dealing with these people.
They have been complaining about this, and asking for better controls on alcohol, for many years and they know it is about to get worse this weekend and next as the festive season peaks. Something must be done about it.
The immediately obvious response is to equip emergency departments with better security, which would deal with troublesome companions but the patients will often need expert physical handling, not simply restraint. In any case, the problem is not confined to hospitals: ambulance staff and others obliged to help these people are also exposed to violence and abuse.