NHS figures raise alcohol alarm

By Iain O'Neil

- Last updated on GMT

Related tags Alcoholic beverage

NHS figures raise alcohol alarm
Figures released by the National Health Service paint a bleak picture of growing health problems caused by alcohol consumption. According to the...

Figures released by the National Health Service paint a bleak picture of growing health problems caused by alcohol consumption.

According to the report, drink-related hospital admissions in England have reached record levels.

Admissions for alcoholic liver disease more than doubled in a decade, reaching 35,400 in 2004/5.

The figures from the NHS Information Centre also show deaths from alcoholic liver disease increased by 37% and admissions for alcoholic poisoning increased to 21,700 from 13,600 over the same 10-year period.

Professor Denise Lievesley, chief executive of The Information Centre, said :"By presenting this data we hope that health professionals will be better equipped to put their work in context and to raise awareness of the dangers of alcohol misuse."

A Department of Health spokesperson told the BBC: "We know that alcohol misuse has a devastating effect on millions of lives each year. And that is why we are working with the drinks industry, police and health professionals to increase awareness of the dangers of excessive drinking and make the sensible drinking message easier to understand.

"We will also be launching a joint campaign with the Home Office later this year to promote sensible drinking amongst young people."

One of the problems raised was the cheap availability of alcohol in supermarkets and shops.

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Your comments

Gillian Gardner via email, 04/07/2006I personally feel that the cheap booze you can buy in Supermarkets is too blame for the increase in Alcohol related deseases.

Poeple used to come out to the pub with £10.00 to spend now you can buy 30 bottles of premium lager for that price or three bottles of wine, this is going to make poeple drink more as they can afford too.

The extra burden of the new licensing laws has cost the publican more so we can not compete with supermarkets. The social side of a pub is dying out. I also feel that when the non-smoking ban comes into force the problem will be worse.

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