Alcohol Sales in Scotland Reach an All-Time High Surpassing England

A recent study completed by Health Scotland showed that sales of alcoholic beverages have reached a record high in Scotland and are now surpassing England. Doctors are now calling for strong action to help cope with the prices of alcohol in Scotland. They realized that despite their efforts to limit alcoholic units for men, volume sales actually increased on average per adult weekly.

According to an article in Medical News Today, general practitioners in Scotland realized that on a single day last April there were more than 5,500 consultations that took place in their country related to alcohol. This equates to nearly 1.4 million visits to doctors in one year, making up 6% of all consultations for GP’s and over £28 million in costs to health systems. Most of us know that drinking large amounts of alcohol on a routine basis has serious consequences for our health and is also not a cheap habit to have.

Taxpayers in Scotland pay roughly £3.56 billion a year due to alcohol consumption and related healthcare costs. On an average Scotland day:

• Alcohol-related crimes and violence will cost £97.5 million and will kill five people.
• 98 people will enter a hospital due to alcohol-related incidents.
• 23 people will commit a drunken driving offense.
• There will be 450 victims of brutal crimes that will notice their assailants have been drinking alcohol.

The chairman of the BMA in Scotland, Dr. Brian Keighley, says their government has embraced policies on the challenges of alcohol misuse but there is a failure on the Scottish Parliaments’ side to support pricing to affect the drinking habits of the Scottish. Keighley says it is imperative that parliament support their legislation on introducing new pricing for alcohol sales.

Scotland’s BMA realizes that if this alcohol trend continues their services will struggle to handle this problem.