Call 888-647-0579 to speak with an alcohol or drug abuse counselor.

Who Answers?

Binge-drink Britain: Hospital alcohol admissions soar by more than 50% in five years

Alcohol-related admissions to hospitals in England have soared by more than 50 per cent over the last five years, latest figures revealed last night.

Startling data from the Department of Health showed there were 863,257 drink-related admissions in 2007-08, up sharply from 569,418 in 2003-04 – the year Labour’s reforms ushered in round-the-clock drinking.

That is the equivalent of 98 people admitted to hospital every hour of every day because of drink-fuelled accidents or assaults, or due to serious illness caused by excessive drinking.

The number of male patients admitted with alcohol recorded as a factor rose from 351,121 to 537,365, while for females the figures leapt from 218,297 to 325,892.

And there was a disturbing rise in the number of young women affected, with alcohol-related admissions among 10 to 16-year-old girls up from 3,948 to 5,408, while among 17 to 21-year-olds figures leapt from 7,979 to 13,007.

The data emerged in a series of written Parliamentary answers from Health Minister Dawn Primarolo, following the Government’s recent admission that alcohol-related hospital admissions were four times higher than previous official estimates.

The findings are set to reignite the fierce debate over how to tackle binge drinking and rising alcohol consumption, after Gordon Brown last month rejected calls from the Chief Medical Officer Liam Donaldson called for a radical new minimum price policy to aimed at reducing hospital admissions and saving lives.

Recent figures from the Department of Health showed a similarly dramatic rise in hospital admissions where alcohol was recorded as the main factor – whether causing illness or injury.

Cases have risen by a third since the controversial Licensing Act came into force in November 2005, reaching a record 81,781 last year – of which a staggering 2,168 involved children aged 14 and under.

The Licensing Act has been widely blamed for a rise in booze-fuelled yobbery, as well as health problems, but ministers have rejected all calls for a rethink.

Don Shenker, of Alcohol Concern said the latest figures were ‘worrying’ and urged ministers to take action to tackle the rock-bottom prices of cheap drinks.

He said: ‘Alcohol is 65 per cent more affordable today than it was in the 1980s.’

Leading experts warned MPs last week that as many as 40,000 drinkers are dying every year because of the Government’s failure to curb Britain’s rising alcohol consumption, either through tighter controls on pub opening hours or on cut-price drinks promotions.

Martin Plant, Professor of addiction studies at the University of the West of England, accused supermarkets of having the ‘morality of the crack dealer’ for selling cut-price booze.

And Professor Ian Gilmore, president of the Royal College of Surgeons, warned MPs that based on present trends alcohol is set to overtake smoking as a major cause of premature death in the UK.

source: Mail Online

More Treatment & Detox Articles

The Tipping Point

A drink is always welcome, but just how much alcohol can the body handle in a lifetime? Thirty-five-year- old Anusha Sangwan would go out five nights a week and end up drinking anywhere between 2-3 cocktails per night. “We’d party a lot in college and having two drinks every night didn’t seem like a lot….

Feds fail to use effective drug treatment plans in prison

Despite 20 years of scientific evidence showing that drug treatment programs work, the feds fail to offer enough of them to prisoners, according to a new study. Currently 7.1 million adults – over 2 percent of the population — in the U.S. are locked up or on probation; about half of them suffer from some….

Binge Drinking Not Just a Rite of the Young

Older alcoholics tend to drink heavily more often than younger people, study finds. Older people who are problem drinkers consume more alcohol than their younger counterparts, a new report finds, possibly because they need more alcohol to achieve the same effect. According to a study released this month, people dependent on alcohol who are older….

Understanding the Treatments for Anorexia

According to the world renowned Mayo Clinic the definition of Anorexia Nervosa (Anorexia) is: “an eating disorder that causes people to obsess about their weight and the food they eat” (Mayo Definition). Anorexia can cause unrealistic expectations of body type and a distorted view of body image, causing Anorexia suffers to starve themselves trying to….

Middle class wine drinkers ‘harming their unborn children

Middle class women who regularly drink a bottle of wine at home with their partner are at ‘high risk’ of having a child with developmental problems, researchers said. In some cases women may damage their unborn child before they even realise they are pregnant, doctors said at a conference. Drinking during pregnancy can cause foetal….