Nurses Call For Drastic Action On Binge Drinking, UK
Main Category: Alcohol / Addiction / Illegal DrugsArticle Date: 31 Jul 2009 - 1:00 PDT
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Responding to the publication of the Public Accounts Committee report, Reducing Alcohol Harm: health services in England for alcohol misuse, Dr Peter Carter, Chief Executive of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN), renews the call for tighter alcohol regulation. He said:
"In every corner of the country, nurses are faced with the devastating effects of binge drinking every day. It is an outrage that 811,000 people end up in hospital each year as a result of alcohol. As well as seriously damaging the health of those concerned, alcohol misuse drains vital resources from the already stretched NHS budget. It is staggering that binge drinking is sapping the NHS of ÂŁ2.7 billion per year when many essential frontline services are struggling financially.
"With a compliance rate of just three per cent, the voluntary labelling scheme is clearly not working. The RCN is calling for the introduction of a single mandatory code to ensure that the alcohol industry does not engage in unscrupulous practices which encourage consumers to drink to excess. Better regulation of the labelling, sale and advertising of alcoholic drinks, as well as widespread education on the dangers of excessive alcohol consumption, is needed to stop this problem from spiralling even further out of control.
"Nurses have said time and time again that the Government must take drastic action to stop this dire situation spiralling out of control."
Source
Royal College of Nursing (RCN)
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Who Is Controlling The Policy On Alcohol?
posted by Peter O'Loughlin on 1 Aug 2009 at 6:19 am"With a compliance rate of just three per cent, the voluntary labeling scheme is clearly not working. The RCN is calling for the introduction of a single mandatory code to ensure that the alcohol industry does not engage in unscrupulous practices which encourage consumers to drink to excess. Better regulation of the labeling, sale and advertising of alcoholic drinks, as well as widespread education on the dangers of excessive alcohol consumption, is needed to stop this problem from spiraling even further out of control”.
Dr Carter’s view on the current alcohol policy is timely and I’m delighted to see that he has joined with Professor Gilmore in calling for action from the Government action including mandatory health warning signs, restrictions on pricing and advertising.
It would indeed be a case for rejoicing if the Government had the will and the determination to introduce such measures, but judging from their policy document ‘Safe Social and Sensible, it is apparent from the message that appears on virtually every page I.E. ‘that ‘more needs to be done to promote safe and sensible drinking’, the alcohol drinks industry who made a significant contribution to the content of that document appear to be in partnership with the government to promote, rather than curtail alcohol consumption, therefore the plea for any action which is likely to achieve the latter will either be ignored or if noted, considerably diluted.
We have already seen the introduction of legislation, but not the implementation of it for curtailing street drinking measures. Advertising and sponsorship is proliferating, rather than reducing; calls for price restrictions are not just ignored, they are met with fierce resistance. This could not continue to occur without at least tacit permission from the government, seemingly agreed by the opposition in their failure to challenge the government, or to come clean about any commitment to tackle the issue. Indeed given the subsidised price of alcohol in the House of Parliament, one questions the sincerity of any sound bites any politician issues in respect of tackling the grave mental and physical problems that are associated with habitual use of what is a toxic substance and which according to Home Office statistics is responsible for 45 per cent of violent crime.
I wish Professor Gilmore and Dr. Carter and their colleagues well in their endeavours to bring about the necessary changes, but given the ambiguity if not outright hypocrisy displayed by politicians in both their utterances and actions as witnessed by the legislation against smoking, whilst spending some Ł23,000 of taxpayer’s money on providing themselves with a comfortable smoking shelter, together with their willingness t0 imbibe ‘cut price’ alcohol in their own dining rooms, I fear it is highly unlikely that change will come to pass in the immediate or near future.
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