If you can afford the booze you can afford to pay for treatment

"I've been spat on,punched,kicked,slapped-- I gave a tissue to a crying girl and she bit my hand" so is quoted paramedic Antonia Gissing in the Observer of 11th December. These people are not poor and underprivileged. They include trainee lawyers and other so called middle class professionals. It is estimated that it costs the NHS a minimum of £220 per drunk. Why should these people not pay at least this amount as an automatic levy? This is not what the NHS was set up to do & why should the taxpayer meet the cost and why should the paramedics have to endure the abuse.