Cancer Ward to Offer Free Alcohol
by Amy Iggulden

Cancer patients are to be offered free spirits, wine and beer in their hospital beds after ward nurses decided that the medicinal benefits of alcohol have been overlooked for too long.

A drinks trolley replete with free sherry, gin, wine, Guinness and beer will be trundled around the ward in the North Hampshire Hospital in Basingstoke at least twice a day.

It will be the first time in decades that alcohol has been offered to patients, according to the nurse in charge of the trolley, and should help patients work up an appetite or drift off to sleep.

Junior Sister Caroline Price, 46, who oversees the Wessex Ward where the scheme is to be introduced, said the demonising of alcohol was obscuring its obvious health benefits. "People forget that it can be beneficial," she said. "Alcohol can help by stimulating people's appetites and it can also calm people down and help them to sleep. Stouts and Guinness are a very good source of iron."

Her patients are very keen on the idea, which she resurrected on the understanding that much of the alcohol will be donated by relatives and friends of the ward patients. Sister Price said the practice of prescribing medicinal alcohol was common in the 1970s and early 1980s but had fallen out of fashion. "I think it's unfortunate. I thought it would be good to bring it back," she said.

Medicinal alcohol is routinely given to cancer patients, according to a spokesman for the North Hampshire Hospital. But some cancer charities said the practice was unusual.

The Christie Hospital in Manchester, the biggest single-site centre in Europe, said it had a ban on offering alcohol to patients, unless they had brought their own.

The support service Cancer Bacup said it was not common for alcoholic drinks to be given out. However, Marie Curie Cancer Care said that beer, wine and spirits were offered to patients at its hospice in Hampstead, north London.

The Department of Health said it did not know of any other hospital that offered alcohol. But it added that trusts were free to make their own decision.
The Daily Telegraph, 3rd September 2005

PHILLIP DAY'S COMMENT: This is ignorance at its worst and most deadly. SUGAR FEEDS CANCER. Alcoholic beverages break down into glucose which feeds the fermentation process cancer depends on to thrive. That English hospitals should be the ones bringing this back is entirely consistent with their deadly reputation for failing cancer patients at every turn. If you have cancer and are reading this, AVOID CANCER DOCTORS IF YOU WISH TO LIVE. For more information, take our internet cancer tour and find out how thousands around the world have cleared their problems naturally and with no toxic side-effects. Steve Ransom also does an excellent book, Great News on Cancer in the 21st Century, which can be reviewed by clicking here.