The problem Scotland faces — turning back the tide of alcohol abuse — is evident on the streets of any town and city and in every hospital A&E ward throughout the country.

And the damage is not restricted to Friday and Saturday nights.

The sad truth is, many never wake up from their alcoholic haze.

“In Scotland there is an alcohol-related death every six hours,” said Dr Rice, speaking to the Tele in advance of the summit today.

“We have seen rising trends in Scotland where now a Scottish woman is more likely to die of alcohol than an English man.”

In Tayside a new programme has led to more than double the number of people with alcohol problems being referred to specialist addiction services.

The figures rose from 600 in 2007 to 1300 last year.

More than 100 people, including representatives from all Scotland’s main political parties, as well as delegates from the alcohol industry, retailers, the health service, academia and other interest groups, attended today’s summit.

The high-powered gathering comes ahead of Scottish Government plans to introduce legislation to set minimum prices for alcohol and other measures aimed at tackling alcohol abuse.

Dr Rice said NHS Tayside was “very supportive” of the plans, saying there was a need to take action on pricing and the easy availability of alcohol.

NHS Tayside has led the way in Scotland, with a new programme aimed at picking up alcohol problems as early as possible by asking family doctors to step in and question patients about their alcohol use when they are visiting the surgery for other reasons.

Dr Rice said Tayside was the first health board to introduce GP screening in January last year and the rest of the country followed 12 months later.

“We now know that around 4000 people were screened (in Tayside) last year,” said Dr Rice. “So we know that GPs have really taken this on.”

The idea of the early intervention programme was that GPs could talk to patients, help them address harmful drinking and head off serious problems later.

However, as Dr Rice predicted, the programme has uncovered a lot of “unmet need” — that is, people with serious alcohol addiction who were not previously known to the specialist services.

“We have been seeing increasing referrals to the specialist services right across the age groups,” said Dr Rice.

“The number of people over the age of 65 has more than doubled, as well as an increase in the younger and middle- aged groups.

“That is one of my messages to today’s summit — that if you set up a treatment programme, people will use it,” Dr Rice said.

“There has been good investment from the Government to help with that.”