Woke health bosses ban using the word 'alcoholic' in latest bizarre advice to staff

Two glasses of wine

Health bosses have been criticised for banning the word 'alcoholic'

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Georgina Cutler

By Georgina Cutler


Published: 18/04/2023

- 12:21

Health chiefs have banned the use of the word 'alcoholic' within the NHS

Health bosses have been criticised for banning the word "alcoholic" and encouraging staff to use the term "those who misuse alcohol" instead.

Staff have also been urged to say "people who use drugs" instead of "drug addicts" and "people who experience homelessness", not "rough sleepers".


In addition, chiefs advise that "smokers" should instead be called "people who smoke".

Terms such as men and women have also been scrapped in an updated style guide at the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice).

Woman smoking

Health chiefs advise that smokers should instead be called people who smoke

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It says: “You can usually use gender-neutral language if the population is broad. This means using ‘people’, ‘they’ and ‘them’ instead of ‘women’, ‘men’ and ‘his’ or ‘her’.”

Concervative MP Nigel Mills told The Sun the guidance was just "woke nonsense" and advised the body to focus on doing something useful.

He said: “This is just woke nonsense.

"They should stop being so politically correct and instead look to do something useful to help the country.”

Nice said: “Our approach is consistent with the NHS and other health bodies and we keep the guide under review.”

Last month the Health Secretary ordered an investigation into NHS quangos after learning taxpayers had funded a guide to "inclusive communication".

Steve Barclay insisted that organisations including NHS England report on whether inclusion schemes were value for money.

NHS sign

The report has set out a number of words that should not be used within the NHS

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Following the review, the NHS website has 475 references to "men" and 947 to "women".

Meanwhile, Alcoholics Anonymous has has kept using the "banned" word.

Last month, a Whitehall source said that "NHS bodies should be spending money on patient care and frontline services rather than diversity and backroom bureaucracy".