Booze culture killing 40 Scots a week, NHS figures reveal

Hospital release - non psychiatric hospital discharge rates per 100,000 of population - Scotland

Almost 40 people a week drank themselves to death last year, latest figures on Scotland's increasingly troubled relationship with alcohol show.

The number of fatalities in which alcohol was the underlying cause or a significant factor passed the 2000 mark for the first time, the NHS statistics division reported.

The toll of 2052 in 2004 was one-and-a-third times the 881 recorded a decade earlier.

The statistics also showed a surge in discharges from acute hospitals for alcohol-related disease among the middle-aged.
Despite teenage drinking often grabbing the headlines, the long-term numbers showed hospital discharges were relatively static or falling among the under-17s.

The number of children under 14 discharged for an alcohol-related condition fell 32% from 314 to 213 between 1996-97 and 2004-05.

However drink-related discharges for the 45-to-64 age group rose 67% over the same period. Experts blamed the cumulative effect of years of heavy drinking resulting in cirrhosis and other diseases of the liver for the figures.
Between 1996-97 and 2004-05, discharges for cirrhosis rose by a third, by 82% for acute hepatitis, and by 185% for alcoholic liver failure.

The data from ISD Scotland, which compiles NHS health statistics, also showed a wide variation around Scotland in hospital discharges due to drink.

Overall, numbers rose 45% between 1996-97 and 2004-05, from 27,919 to 40,448.

Last year, 7754, or 19%, of discharges stemmed from an emergency admission, with 55% happening on a Friday, Saturday or Sunday.

Two-thirds of discharges related to "mental and behavioural disorders due to the use of alcohol", including acute intoxication, dependence, psychosis and harmful use.

However in North Lanarkshire discharges rose 105%.

The greatest concentration of hospital cases related to alcohol was in the Western Isles health board area, where there were 1554 per 100,000 people. Other high rates were in the Greater Glasgow area, where there were 1137 discharges per 100,000 people, and 1254 per 100,000 in Inverclyde. The Scotland-wide rate was 748 per 100,000 people last year, up 17% since 2000-01.

The data followed figures issued last week by NHS Quality Improvement Scotland, which showed emergency hospital admissions of people suffering high levels of intoxication rose by 40% for men and 30% for women between 1996 and 2004.

Dr Jonathan Chick, of the Alcohol Problem Service in NHS Lothian, said: "Cirrhosis figures in France have plateaued, and in Italy, Canada, the US and Australia they're coming down. It's particularly in the UK that we see this terrific increase.
"It's so much more affordable for a young person to drink now than 10 to 20 years ago. Putting up prices is widely believed to be the most effective single measure to correct this," he added.

Lewis Macdonald, deputy health minister, said Scotland's drinking culture carried a heavy human and financial cost to society, but insisted ministers were acting to tackle the problem.

"We all need to face up to the massive problems this causes," he said. "That is why we are taking extensive measures to tackle alcohol misuse and binge drinking."

Stewart Maxwell, the SNP's deputy health spokesman, called for a national debate on how to end Scotland's "bevvy culture".
He said: "This report should be a wake-up call for the executive. The deputy health minister says the executive is 'taking extensive measures to tackle alcohol misuse and binge drinking' – the same executive which has removed the barrier to round-the-clock drinking with its licensing bill."

Tory Nanette Milne said: "Education is clearly needed and we have to take action to curb underage drinking."
Jack Law, the chief executive of Alcohol Focus Scotland, said: "Alcohol is now far more affordable, more widely available, and many drinks are much stronger than ever before. Too many people fail to recognise that the way they personally are drinking may be causing serious harm, until it is too late and they have damaged their health, relationships or lifestyle beyond repair."

The Herald ~ December 20 2005