Government must prioritise alcohol prevention

A number of leading healthcare organisations have written to the public health minister expressing their growing concerns over the impact that alcohol is having on the nation’s health.

Urging the government to prioritise a new alcohol strategy, the British Medical Association was one of the signatories of the letter to MP Seema Kennedy warning of the ‘escalating risk to public health’.

Alongside the Royal Colleges, the BMA write in the letter that, despite recent strategies for obesity and tobacco, there has been a ‘lack of strategic focus’ on alcohol.

According to the letter, since 2014/15, the number of alcohol-related hospital admissions each year has increased by over 100,000, a worryingly high increase of eight per cent. Despite this, fewer people are accessing treatment even though evidence shows that it is effective for an increasing proportion of people.

Professor Dame Parveen Kumar, BMA board of science chair, said: “The normalisation of alcohol in society has meant that unfortunately, not enough is being done to highlight the harm that excess alcohol consumption can have on health; harm that we as healthcare professionals deal with on daily basis. As well as the more obvious physical toll and the link to serious conditions such as cancer and liver cirrhosis, the impact that excess alcohol consumption can have on mental health and personal life can often be devastating.

“The cumulative effect of increasingly affordable alcohol, marketing and cuts to public health budgets means we are now witnessing a dangerous trend of increases in hospital-related admissions and alcohol specific-deaths alongside less people seeking treatment or help.

“The case for a new alcohol strategy could not be clearer and failure to tackle the increasing severity of this issue will mean that we will continue on this alarming trajectory resulting in more alcohol-related ill health and deaths.”