09 February 2025
Wards were provided with Guinness or Mackeson stout by the pharmacy. This could be part of the daily top-up requisition. The theory was that these alcoholic beverages provided much needed vitamins to elderly or former alcoholics who might have a B-group deficiency (Midwives in the 50s and 60s also recommended this to pregnant mothers).
Many staff appeared to suffer from the same deficiency, so self-medicated, benefitting from this therapy far more than the patients. Far more. Really, far more. Some wards ordered several bottles daily. One Christmas I did, only once, see bottles handed out to the patients by Charge Nurse R., much to the chagrin of the C/N on the opposite shift who had presumably ear-marked several gallons for his own consumption. What was it about these beverages that made them so highly desirable? What randomised clinical trials had been conducted to prove their efficacy? Did evidence suggest that the population of Ireland escaped B-group deficiency? Both beverages were a reassuring dark brown, and “B” is the vitamin group in deficit, so maybe this was the link that made these beverages so essential on some wards.
Or was it because they were easily obtained at nil cost?
09 February 2025