Alcohol-related illness and deaths to cost NHS £17 billion

Between 2017 and 2022 the total cost to the NHS of alcohol-related illness and deaths will be £17 billion, a new report estimates.

The report, conducted by researchers at the University of Sheffield and published by the Foundation for Liver Research found that alcohol consumption will cause 63,000 deaths in England over the next five years - the equivalent of 35 deaths a day.

The report found that 22,500 of these will be due to alcoholic liver disease and 32,500 to cancer.

The new report, Financial case for action on liver disease, urges the government to implement policy measures designed to decrease the rising health and financial burden of alcohol, including introducing minimum unit pricing (MUP), re-instituting alcohol duty escalator and advertising restrictions.

It shows that within five years of its introduction, a 50p MUP alone in England would result in: 1,150 fewer alcohol-related deaths; 74,500 fewer alcohol-related hospital admissions; savings of £325.7 million in healthcare costs; and savings of £710.9 million in crime costs. The total financial savings of the MUP is forecast to be £1.1 billion.

Colin Angus, Research Fellow at the University of Sheffield and part of the Sheffield Alcohol Research Group who conducted the research, said: “These new findings show there will be 35 deaths and 2,300 hospital admissions due to alcohol every day in England over the next five years.

“We estimate this will cost the NHS £17 billion at a time when healthcare resources are already overstretched. Our research also shows that policies such as Minimum Unit Pricing have the potential to significantly reduce this burden."

Roger Williams, director of the Foundation for Liver Research and chairman of the Lancet Commission on Liver Disease, said: “Liver disease is a public health crisis that has been steadily unfolding before our eyes for a number of years now and the Government will have to take robust public health action if its main causes (alcohol misuse, obesity and viral hepatitis) are to be controlled.

“Our new report strengthens the argument for intervention by revealing the full and alarming extent of the financial costs associated with inaction in these areas and setting out the economic benefits of addressing these risk factors.”