Woke health chiefs have been met with fury after they banned doctors and nurses from saying ‘alcoholics’ with NHS staff to call them people who misuse alcohol instead.

It is the latest bureaucratic decision by health bosses to be slammed by politicians.

Just last month the Health Secretary ordered an investigation into a diktat by NHS quangos after learning taxpayers had funded a guide to ‘inclusive communication’.

In this latest bout of wokery, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice) also said staff should refer to drug addicts as people who use drugs; smokers as people who smoke; and rough sleepers as people who experience homelessness.

Even the words ‘men’ and ‘women’ are too much for Nice, who have deemed that NHS should stick to ‘gender-neutral language’.

Health bosses have told NHS staff to call alcoholics people who misuse alcohol (File image)

However, the group’s own website has 475 references to ‘men’ and 947 to ‘women’.

Meanwhile, Alcoholics Anonymous has has kept using the frowned-upon 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’.

After these latest revelations, Tory MP Nigel Mills told The Sun the guidance was just ‘woke nonsense’ and implored the body to focus on doing something useful to help the country.

The NHS has been under extreme pressure from junior doctor and nurses strikes.

There were at least 201,000 cancellations last week when junior doctors staged a four-day walkout, resulting in an average of 26,145 medics being absent each day.

Just last month the Health Secretary Steve Barclay (pictured) ordered an investigation into a diktat by NHS quangos after learning taxpayers had funded a guide to ‘inclusive communication’

It means the total has now soared past 531,000 since December because of industrial action by doctors, nurses, paramedics and physiotherapists.

NHS England said the true impact is likely to have been much higher as not all hospitals have provided staffing data and many had avoided scheduling consultations on these dates.

Yet just last week the The Royal College of Nursing threatened strikes until Christmas and hinted at a tie-in with junior doctors.

Conservative ministers warned that the NHS pay deal was a ‘full and final offer’ and even Labour said it could not support walkouts that ‘risk patient safety’.

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