TY - JOUR T1 - Hazardous drinking and the NHS: the costs of pessimism and the benefits of optimism JF - British Journal of General Practice JO - Br J Gen Pract SP - 247 LP - 248 VL - 56 IS - 525 AU - Jim McCambridge AU - John Strang AU - Chris C Butler AU - Francis Keaney AU - Peter Anderson Y1 - 2006/04/01 UR - http://bjgp.org/content/56/525/247.abstract N2 - From its inception, the NHS has seen a period of seemingly relentless rises in alcohol consumption and the associated health and wider social harms, particularly since 1970.1 Our national performance is also deteriorating in the context of wider European trends.2For liver cirrhosis mortality, which is a key indicator of alcohol harms in the general population, England and Wales have moved from having the lowest rates to a current rate similar to that of other western countries for both sexes and across all age groups. Scotland has moved from a similarly low position to now having some of the highest rates in western Europe. These recent increases are the steepest in western Europe.2The cultural acceptability of both drinking and drunkenness have been promoted aggressively and expensively by the alcohol industry, and the lack of any strategic alcohol response has been a striking failure. Now, finally, this deficiency has been recognised and we have seen the development of the first national alcohol strategy for England.3Unfortunately, politicians seem to lack the commitment to introduce potentially unpopular changes that would undoubtedly improve the health of the nation as a result of the known relationships between price, prevalence of heavy drinking and associated … ER -