Interview - Professor Ian Gilmore - Royal College of Physicians

ePolitix.com
Published: Wed, 26 Jan 2005 00:02:00 GMT+00

Professor Ian Gilmore - Royal College of Physicians
Royal College of Physicians

Question: You are holding a conference on alcohol this week - what is it going to focus on and why is there a need for the conference?

Prof Ian Gilmore: It is now a year since the government produced its long-awaited alcohol harm reduction strategy, and more recently its public health white paper "Choosing health".

However, the recommendations and policy measures promoted in these two documents concentrate too heavily on the aspects of drinking most closely related to law and order issues at the expense of health, and fall short of meeting the concerns of the medical profession. We are using this conference to put the health consequences of alcohol misuse back on the agenda.

Question: In your opinion is the government taking alcohol related harm seriously?

Prof Ian Gilmore: I think the government is taking alcohol related harm seriously, however I believe they are working under considerable constraints due to the massive force of the drinks industry lobby.

I think the government finds it easier to tackle the law and order aspects of alcohol misuse, as they are politically attractive. It may be true that it is only a small minority who are creating havoc in our inner cities and making them no go areas at night.

However, 25 per cent of the population are drinking at potentially harmful levels and five million people in the population are alcohol dependent. So we are not talking about small numbers.

We are talking about immediate health risks which are linked to binge drinking; like getting a glass in the face, unwanted pregnancies, but we are also talking about the long term consequences like cirrhosis of the liver.

Cirrhosis of the liver has gone up 900 per cent since the 1970s during which time our alcohol consumption as a country has gone up 50 per cent. We are drinking more and more as alcohol is getting cheaper year on year and we fear that a change to the licensing laws is about to make alcohol more available than it has ever been.

Question: Should the government be doing more considering the effects on health, work, anti-social behaviour?

Prof Ian Gilmore: The alcohol harm reduction strategy as produced by the Cabinet Office was cross cutting but since then I think the focus on alcohol related harm has been lost to some extent. The Home Office was given the responsibility of pulling the strategy together but the Home Office inevitably has a much more law and order focus.

Question: Is the drinks industry taking alcohol related harm seriously?

Prof Ian Gilmore: I believe that this drinks industry is being vocal on the issues of binge drinking and I believe that they want to see law and order problems sorted out as currently it gives them a bad name; I do not believe that they wish to see the nation drinking less.

The industry has a £30 billion annual turnover, they have some social responsibility programmes, however at the end of the day they have a responsibility to the shareholders.

I am not blaming the drinks industry for the problems that we have now, but I am concerned the government wants to work alongside the industry and I am doubtful that this will be effective.

For example, in the public health white paper one of the government’s recommendations is that there should be a public information campaign in partnership with the Portman Group. We do not think that is the right partnership for a public information campaign when there are other independent bodies like Royal College of Physicians or Alcohol Concern who could and would be much better placed to work to publicise this information

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