News and Press

Cheap alcohol No 1 problem, say NHS staff

8 Apr 2009

A snapshot survey of doctors and nurses treating patients with alcohol related harm showed that many believe that public health campaigns are not effective and that action on sales of low priced alcohol is the most important weapon for tackling the rising tide of alcohol problems.

Significant findings were:

• 84% of respondents thought that public health campaigns were not effective
• 73% felt action on low priced alcohol was needed to tackle alcohol related problems.
• 90% believed that all alcohol products should be labelled with unit information and sensible drinking guidelines
• 71% believed that greater investment in treatment services was needed.
• 81% thought that if alcohol was more expensive, there would be a decrease in consumption.

The survey was carried out by the Royal College of Physicians and the Royal College of Nursing.

For more details see RCP/RCN Alcohol Survey - Summary Results [pdf]