 The Scottish Government has formally unveiled plans to set a 50p-per-unit minimum price for alcohol, in a bid curb binge drinking and relieve the strain on the NHS. |
 GPs should be incentivised through QOF to ask all patients about their alcohol intake and have a ‘stepped programme’ of interventions for problem drinkers, MPs have been told. |
 GPs should either initiate or switch patients to varenicline after 12-weeks to prevent relapse, a QIPP analysis by the Cochrane Collaboration has concluded. |
 Shisha smoking poses a greater threat to patients than pandemic flu and is making a ‘mockery’ of attempts to reduce smoking in young people, a senior GP has warned. |
 The Government has tabled plans to introduce minimum pricing on alcohol in England in an effort to curb the harmful effects of binge drinking. |
The Government has prioritised homeless care, writes Steve Shrubb, but have GP commissioners done the same? |
 Selling alcohol without a minimum price is like driving with no speed limit, says Dr Carsten Grimm |
Reports in Pulse that PCTs and emerging clinical commissioning groups are ‘rationing care' for obese patients and smokers gained widespread coverage in the mainstream media. A policy introduced in Hertfordshire earlier this year was cited as an example, and some commentators have cried ‘discrimination' and told us our approach has no place in today's NHS.
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Pulse’s revelation that GPs and NHS managers across the country are introducing rationing measures specifically targeted at smokers and the obese sparked national headlines – and divided GPs. Here GP commissioners at the heart of the story debate ‘rationing by lifestyle’.
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 If my research for Panorama is anything to go by, Alastair Campbell writes, GPs will be seeing more not less of patients because of drink and, as these other services come under pressure, the GP’s share of the frontline will grow. |
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Copperfield suggests an equally effective and much cheaper alternative to the 'triple whammy' treatment regimen found to increase smoking quit rates. |
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Through the K hole gives his inimitable take on new guidelines for managing alcohol misuse |
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Copperfield is somewhat underwhelmed by the Department of Health's latest Big Idea on public health |
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David Nutt is a gift of a name for sub-editors on papers. The usual epithets of ‘Nutty Professor’ or ‘Nutts to you’ have been used to describe this distinguished academic. But who is he? |
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The UK's chief drugs adviser Professor David Nutt has been sacked by home secretary Alan Johnson after criticising Government policies. |