A collective call was issued last week by doctors from across Ireland and the UK, urging their governments to take long-promised action against cut-price alcohol.



Speaking at the British and Irish Gastroenterology Conference in Belfast, medical specialists united in their call for the introduction of minimum unit pricing (MUP), as well as improved investment in hospital and community alcohol treatment services, in an effort to head-off a growing alcohol-related crisis in healthcare.

The Irish, British and Ulster Societies of Gastroenterology said they were united in the belief that cheap alcohol available in supermarkets, convenience stores and petrol stations has played a substantial role in the startling increase in alcohol-related diseases that had emerged in recent years.

Prof Aiden McCormick, President of Irish Society of Gastroenterology (ISG), called on the Irish Government to introduce a 1 per cent levy on alcohol advertising and sponsorship expenditure. The ISG recommended that the funding generated from this levy would be ring-fenced to fund an Institute of Alcohol Studies, which would spearhead health services research into alcohol harm reduction.

“We feel it appropriate that the industry which profits from alcohol consumption should fund research into harm reduction,” Prof McCormick said.