Hospital Admissions for Alcohol Abuse Double in England

by Rob Walker | May 22, 2008 at 11:09 am

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A new report out of England shows hospital admissions for alcohol-related illness to be the main or secondary cause of over 200,000 admissions last year, compared to only just over 90,000 in 1995.

This follows numerous studies where alcohol drinkers in the UK were unable to tell how much alcohol was in an average glass of wine, later bar hours and a change in drinking levels among younger drinkers.

Hospital admissions linked to alcohol use have more than doubled in England since 1995, an NHS report shows.

Alcohol was the main or secondary cause of 207,800 NHS admissions in 2006/7, compared to 93,500 in 1995/96.

There has also been a 20% rise in the number of GP prescriptions for treating alcohol dependency in the past four years, the NHS Information Centre said.

Three-quarters of drinkers do not know a typical glass of wine contains three units of alcohol, a survey for the Department of Health suggests.

The YouGov survey of 1,429 drinkers in England found more than a third did not know their recommended daily limit - 2-3 units for women and 3-4 for men.

The survey coincides with a government campaign to promote careful drinking.

DRINKERS in Coventry and Warwickshire are being encouraged to "know their limits" as a £10 million awareness campaign gets under way.

The Department of Health's Know Your Limit campaign is the biggest alcohol awareness push to date.

A new poll shows that while 70 per cent of women in the West Midlands knew their recommended daily guidelines are two to three units, only 55 per cent of men were aware that their equivalent guidelines are three to four units.

Warwickshire's Drug and Alcohol Action Team (DAAT) is concerned with the survey results and has an Alcohol Harm Reduction Strategy in place to tackle the problem.

The figure includes 8,500 under 18s who ended up in hospital because they were drunk, injured themselves through drink or developed a secondary condition because of alcohol, according to data from the National Health Service.

In just over a decade the number of children admitted to hospital through drink rose by more than half.

The government has insisted it is doing all it can to counteract the rising prevalence of alcohol dependency in England.

Health minister Dawn Primarolo said the Department of Health was "working harder than ever" to help those who regularly drink too much.

She was responding to figures from the NHS Information Centre that showed alcohol-related hospital admissions had more than doubled between 1995/96 and 2006/07.