Australians now have a facility they can go to if they had too much to drink. The opening of the Hangover Clinic in Sydney over the weekend before Christmas Day is timely because of the expected surge in yearend holiday parties that many include drinking a lot of alcoholic beverages.

However, even before the country’s first hangover clinic could treat drunk Aussies, health experts have criticised the facility as unethical and unnecessary, reports 9News. They say having such a clinic encourages people to drink irresponsibly.

Besides that point, the cost of the clinic’s package of treatments could also be another point of contention since the cheapest treatment package comes at $140 lasting for 30 minutes. The clinic promises that within that short period, patients would have relief from symptoms of hangover by providing them headache or anti-nausea drugs such as a cocktail of vitamin B and C and a litre of IV drop.

A one-hour treatment, made up of two litres of IV drip, the vitamin cocktail and oxygen therapy, would cost $200. The facility also has a VIP lounge for group recovery, reports Business Insider.

Because “some hangover can be terrible and some people can’t even get out of bed,” doctors assess each patient before treatment, says Max Petro, founder of the clinic. The clinic is found at 23 Pelican St, Surry Hills, Sydney, New South Wales.

Unfortunately for the Hangover Clinic, at least two health experts spoke against the facility. John Rogerson from the Australian Drug Federation finds the clinic unneeded and unethical. For Public Health Association of Australia Chief Executive Michael Moore, the facility is a one negative step in public health education.

“After all the hard work that has been done to reduce the harm associated with alcohol … this is ridiculous,” The Sydney Morning Herald quotes Moore.

However, in defense of the clinic which has similar facilities in the US and Europe, Petro says, “We encourage binge drinking as much as hospitals encourage people to get sick.”

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