Diagnosis and clinical management of alcohol related physical complications: summary of NICE guidance

I was interested to read that the annual cost to the NHS of treating
acute and chronic drinking is £2.7 billion pounds.(BMJ 2010: 340: 1412-
1413) Clearly alcohol use results in significant demands on increasingly
limited NHS resources. I believe the time is right for a review of the
price structure of alcohol so that alcohol use is cost neutral to the NHS.

The purchase cost of alcohol should be increased to reflect the NHS
“cost” per unit of alcohol consumed. I estimate that this is likely to add
approximately 5 pence per unit of alcohol to the retail purchase price of
alcohol. While accepting that alcohol is already significantly taxed it
can be argued that alcohol is more affordable now than for many years.
Increasing the cost of alcohol is therefore acceptable, is likely to have
public health benefits and the additional £2.7 billion raised could be
ringfenced for the NHS.
Surely in the present climate few would disagree with an "NHS tax" on
alcohol.

Competing interests:
None declared