10 FYi • Analysis


DYING FOR A DRINK


T


HE number of people being admitted to hospital each year in England for alcohol-related problems has more than doubled in the last 10 years, and now tops one million. According to official figures from the NHS Information


Centre, there were 1,057,000 alcohol-related admissions recorded in England in 2009-2010 compared to 945,500


the previous year. And that’s excluding A&E treatment. In 2002-2003 the figure stood at 510,800. Of the 1,057,000 hospital admissions, one in four was wholly attributable to alcohol while the remainder was partly attributable to drinking. The report also showed alcohol dependency cost the NHS £2.4million in prescription items in 2010, up 1.4 per cent on the previous year. Meanwhile, a 2012 Department of Health (DoH) report, submitted to


a Commons health select committee inquiry, put the annual cost to the NHS of alcohol misuse at £3.5billion. That’s up 30 per cent in just three years. Combine these statistics with the perpetual onslaught of media


reports of drink-fuelled violent crime and anti-social behaviour and alcohol quickly begins to look like public enemy number one. And while alcohol abuse may be seen by some as a problem for the


police and criminal justice system to solve, the impact on the NHS cannot be ignored. The 2012 DoH report warns more than 60 diseases and conditions, including heart disease, stroke, liver disease and cancer, can be directly linked to alcohol.


Preventive role So is it time doctors played a more active role in the prevention of alcohol abuse, rather than focusing on repairing the damage it causes? Senior lecturer and consultant oral surgeon Dr Christine Goodall


believes so. She is based at the Glasgow University Dental School and has witnessed first-hand the horrifying consequences of violent crime, much of which is alcohol-related. She is also one of the founders of the charity Medics Against Violence


(MAV) in which medical professionals visit schools across Scotland to speak to pupils about the consequences of violence. To date, the charity has spoken to more than 10,000 young people with plans to further expand the programme.


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