Clinic to shame binge drinkers with video footage of their drunken behaviour

A new city-center health clinic in Cardiff is to be kitted out with filming equipment to produce videos of patients who enter the centre after a night on the tiles The clinic is intended to take the pressure off accident and emergency departments on busy party nights. It will video revellers on entry and show them the footage when they have “achieved a level of sobriety. The move is part of an £85,000 triage scheme, supported by the government, that aims to reduce pressure on A&E departments and tackle Cardiff’s binge-drinking culture. Conrad Edymann, head of substance misuse strategy and development for Cardiff and Vale University Health Board said: “Part of the scheme will include the option for individuals to review the video of their arrival. It indicates how alcohol can affect their behaviour. “Our intention is that the vast majority of people will be surprised and hopefully concerned about the state of their behaviour.” He explained that nobody would be forced to watch the footage of themselves and it would be destroyed when the individual left the clinic, partly to prevent it becoming “a trophy item to put up on social networking sites”. Alcohol-related cases make up 60 per cent of ambulances and A&E beds at weekends in Cardiff. The video pilot will be trialled on Wednesdays and Fridays for 12 weeks from September, coinciding with the start of term at Cardiff University.