“The fast rising number of German youths drinking themselves into a coma and being taken to German hospitals is unacceptable,” parliamentary health expert from the conservative Christian Democrats Jens Spahn told regional newspaper the Rheinische Post.
Because unnecessary staff and money were needed to treat drunk patients, parents should be made to pay a fine of €100 directly to their health insurer to cover the costs and, Spahn suggested, to remind them that they are responsible for their children's behaviour.
In North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) alone, the number of German youths aged between 10 and 19 who have to be hospitalised for excess alcohol consumption is rising. In 2011 the figure stood at 6,548 which, statutory health insurer DAK said, was an increase of 4.3 percent since 2003.
On average, 325 out of each 100,000 young people in Germany drink themselves into the hospital each year, the Rheinische Post reported.
The Local/jcw
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