[Margaret Pilkington]

Yes, I think that those who misuse the services should be fined and I would advocate a sort of fixed penalty doled out by security staff….rather than someone being billed.
I know that there are time wasters who use the services indiscriminately….and yes by all means penalise them but please do not get into the situation where services are deemed unavailable if your need could be seen as being self induced.
To determine whether something is self induced requires a value judgement to be made….and I was taught that we were not there to make value judgements on our patients.

Do you turn away someone with a broken leg because they fell down after a few drinks at a birthday bash? (No of course you don’t…but you want their credit card details so that they pay for treatment?)
The person you want to charge may have paid their taxes and the NI contributions and never had need of the service before.

This is a slippery slope to go down….and once down there you can never get back up