Health chief Alice Wiseman and recovering alcohol addict Karen Slater agree that the NHS 10-year-plan doesn’t go far enough to prevent alcohol harms
Newcastle and Gateshead’s director of public health Alice Wiseman is a vocal campaigner to reduce alcohol harm(Image: Newcastle Chronicle / PA)
Leading health figures called the lack of a ban on alcohol advertising in the NHS 10-year-plan a “missed opportunity”. Alice Wiseman, director of public health in both Newcastle and Gateshead, said there needs to be recognition of how alcohol harms hit the North East hardest, too.
The NHS plan was published on Thursday and sees a wide range of ambitions and ideas – including a focus on illness-prevention, plans to move care from hospitals towards communities, and what a minister said was to be an end to the situation where “those in greatest need often receive the worst quality healthcare”. But Ms Wiseman, Ailsa Rutter – who heads up alcohol campaign group Balance – and Karen Slater, who is a recovering alcohol addict, all said there was a clear missed opportunity in the plan.
The trio agreed that there was not enough published about tackling the proliferation of alcohol advertising. This comes a week after the Telegraph reported the Government had “u-turned” on such a measure.
Ms Wiseman highlighted the £1.5bn a year impact of alcohol harm on the North East economy and said: “While we have seen positive action on smoking over many years, there also needs to be a recognition of how alcohol use is costing communities dearly – especially here in the North East where poorest communities are hit the hardest.
“Successive governments have ignored the robust evidence on alcohol and given alcohol companies free rein to keep people drinking and buying more. This lack of action has fuelled the emergency we now face. Questions must be asked as to how much influence health-harming industries now have here in the UK.”
Karen Slater has warned of the dangers of TV adverts for alcohol and said they can be very tempting to those struggling with addiction.(Image: Balance)
She added: “Health is one of the top priorities of most people. Without serious policies that address alcohol’s price, availability and marketing, alcohol harms will continue to spiral and the NHS, emergency services, local authorities and communities, will pay the price, with tens of thousands more avoidable deaths.”
Ms Rutter echoed this and said that the lack of greater action to tackle alcohol harm was a “huge disappointment” – and she also asked questions about the impact of industry lobbying.
She continued: “Policies such as Minimum Unit Pricing, ensuring that health concerns are considered in the licensing process and protecting children from aggressive alcohol advertising must be urgently considered. “Community level innovations” need to be backed up by effective national regulation.
“The Government has promised us a shift towards prevention, but the changes outlined in the NHS 10-Year Plan simply don’t go far enough. We will welcome robust mandatory health labelling and if done following the international evidence base this will help to increase the awareness of the health harms from alcohol. The industry must not be allowed to dictate the terms of this though.”
Mum-of-four Ms Slater blames alcohol advertising for her own relapse. She said: “The NHS 10-year plan should prioritise public health and change the narrative around alcohol. I’m saddened that the Government appears to be sending a message that alcohol industry profits are more important than people’s health.
“For someone living with alcohol addiction, seeing an alcohol advert after a bad day or a bad moment, can trigger a relapse. I’ve been in a situation when I saw an ad for pink gin and couldn’t stop thinking about it. Within minutes I was at the shop – and there was my relapse.”
She added: “My experience is that alcohol is a toxin that changes how I think and act. It has caused me and others immense harm. We should never minimise the harms alcohol can and does cause, so we need a major re-think on our approach to alcohol policy in this country.”
The section of the NHS 10-year Plan dealing with alcohol does lay out some changes – including a “mandatory requirement” for alcohol to display consistent nutritional information and health warning messages. There are also measures to support the growth of the “no and Lo-” alcohol market, while also restricting its sale to under 18s.
The plan adds: “We will also support innovative community level innovations where they have shown promise in reducing alcohol harm – including peer-led support groups, peer mentoring and coaching and mutual aid networks. We will work with local government to roll-out community led schemes with evidence of efficacy and value over the course of this Plan.”
In response to reports last week, a Government spokesperson confirmed the plan did not contain a ban on alcohol advertising.
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