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HEALTH authorities will call on GPs and other medical workers to ask patients about their alcohol consumption as a poll reveals that four in five of us think Australia has a binge-drinking culture.

The recommendation to manage drinking behaviour before it gets out of control would be part of a plan to prevent alcohol disease that is being prepared by a working party for NSW Health.

The plan grew out of the 2003 alcohol summit and is expected to be finished in three to six months.

Bob Batey, clinical adviser at the Mental Health and Drug and Alcohol Office, said a check would identify people who are beginning to exhibit problems with alcohol.

The working party will examine whether the check would need mandating if clinicians failed to adopt the recommendation.

Dr Batey said the alcohol history check could lead to an "early and brief intervention" when needed.

"This intervention may simply be a chat between the doctor and his patient about strategies to avoid drinking as much," he said.

"The doctor may require the patient to visit them again in a month to see if their behaviour has altered. They could medicate the patient to reduce their need for alcohol or even refer them to a psychologist or drug and alcohol advisory service.

The debate about alcohol consumption continues as a Sun-Herald /Taverner poll of 602 people - conducted by telephone across NSW from June 25 to 27 - found 81 per cent of respondents believed there was a binge-drinking culture in Australia. Only 15 per cent said there was not, and 4 per cent were unsure.

The poll found that 60 per cent of people believed the Government had no responsibility to curb binge drinking, but close to four in 10 felt the Government had some responsibility to act.

Only 14 per cent of respondents thought a higher tax on alcohol would be an effective solution.

Binge drinking became a campaign issue in the June 28 Gippsland byelection, which the National Party won with an unexpectedly large swing against the Rudd Government.

Spirit manufacturers financed a "ute man" television campaign to protest against the Government's so-called alcopop tax. It said the new tax was a revenue grab rather than a health-based attempt to arrest binge drinking among teenage girls, and that tradesmen who drank cans of mixed spirit-based drinks were collateral damage.

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