- Cases of liver disease caused by excessive drinking soared
by 75 per cent in six years and cost the NHS more than £65 million
a year, the Liberal Democrats said yesterday. "Alcohol-related illness
is spiralling out of control," said Paul Burstow, the party's health
spokesman.
-
- The Lib Dems attacked the Government for delaying its
alcohol strategy for six years. "Ministers have done nothing to tackle
the growing cost of excessive drinking both in terms of health and to the
taxpayer," said Mr Burstow.
-
- "The culture of binge drinking among young people,
particularly women, is damaging their health. Much more needs to be done
to alert people to the health risks." He added: "The Government's
alcohol strategy was announced in 1998 but still has not been published."
-
- According to the Government's own statistics in 2002-03,
151,086 "bed days" were taken up in NHS hospitals by people with
alcohol-related problems.
-
- The Lib Dems said that not only were more people being
treated for liver diseases but that their problems were more severe, needing
longer stays in hospitals.
-
- In 1996-97 the average length of stay in hospital for
a patient with alcoholic liver disease was 12.7 days. By 2002-03 this was
14.1 days.
-
- Six years ago hospital consultants gave 10,903 treatments
for alcohol-related liver diseases compared with 19,130 in 2002-03. A government
report in September estimated that 17 million working days were lost to
hangovers and the cost of treating alcohol-related injury and illness was
£1.7 billion.
-
- Recommendations from the Alcohol Harm Reduction Strategy
group were expected at the end of this year, for implementation next year.
-
- - Almost half of all revellers planning to take drugs
on New Year's Eve will mix alcohol with a cocktail of illegal substances,
a poll revealed yesterday.
-
- The findings were announced by Frank, the Government's
campaign to fight drug misuse. Partygoers are being urged to avoid mixing
alcohol and drugs.
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- © Copyright of Telegraph Group Limited 2003.
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