Drinking on duty

 

DZ was interested to read this article about a nurse who was struck off the Nursing register for consuming alcohol at work.

Now, I’m not going to condone or defend her conduct. Drinking on duty is most definitely frowned upon for medical and other professionals in the UK and I think that that is understandable.

But it wasn’t always so.

My first ever job as a pre registration houseman was at an inner city hospital. There was a pub literally next door. It was not at all unusual for entire teams of doctors on duty to take advantage of the odd quiet spell and meet up in the pub for a beer. The landlord graciously allowed doctors to use his personal landline phone (There were no celphones in those days) to contact the hospital when they were bleeped. There was even a suggestion that a hospital phone be laid on for this purpose, but though considered, it did not materialise. But the management were perfectly aware of, and unconcerned about the practice.

And then there was Christmas. Through the year grateful patients would often donate small gifts to the staff when they went home. The two commonest gifts were chocolates, or a bottle of some alcoholic beverage.

It was remarkable how quickly a box of chocolates could disappear in the presence of nurses. Some things don’t change. But alcohol was locked away. At Christmas it would come out, and a small number of bottles would be available in the sister’s office for ward staff and doctors to sample. Again this was common knowledge, and tolerated.

Not by everyone it has to be said. One teetotal ultra religious consultant one year took all the bottles on his ward and emptied them down the sink!

And in France, until relatively recently, wine was available to hospital staff having lunch in the hospital cafeteria. This now appears to be coming to an end however.

DZ will certainly confess that throughout his career, when on call from home he would often have a beer or a wine, though always careful to stay well below the driving limit.

In all my years I never saw anyone abuse the privilege. I never once saw anyone drunk on duty.