Health chief says TV soaps need to tackle boozing in pregnancy to discourage women from drinking

TV shows could help persuade pregnant women to lay off booze, says England’s top doctor.

Professor Dame Sally Davies called on programmes like EastEnders and Casualty to focus on the harms of foetal alcohol spectrum disorder.

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Speaking to MPs, she also took aim at NHS staff who skip the flu jab and slammed vaping in public.

Nearly 80 per cent of expectant mums drink alcohol and 25 per cent admit to binge drinking, a study last year found.

Dame Sally said it was a challenge to “persuade the public to drink moderately”.

She added: “What we need to find . . . are the nudges to impact this so that people change their way of life while pregnant.

“We probably need things like EastEnders and Casualty to have ­episodes which bring this out.”

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She also told the Science and Technology Committee that all NHS staff should be required to have the flu jab each year.

Eighteen patients died in 2010 after catching the bug from hospital staff. But figures show 30 per cent of health workers were not vaccinated in 2018.

Dame Sally said: “I think consideration should be given to making it a contractual duty.”

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