Boozing gives NHS £4m hangover

Alcohol abuse is costing the NHS in Norfolk an estimated four million pounds a year as rising numbers of people hit the bottle.

A leading consultant has warned the county's flagship hospital is seeing an increasing number of people with liver disease and more are succumbing to alcohol at a much younger age.

Across the UK the NHS is being forced to fork out £3 billion to deal with alcohol-related diseases and in Norfolk this figure amounts to a shocking £4 million for a population of 750,000.

It is impossible to ascertain the exact figure because there are such wide-ranging repercussions from drinking related incidents, such as liver disease, gastro-intestinal problems, head injuries, strokes, broken bones and long term mental problems.

But in Norwich alone the booze is costing the NHS just around £1 million to treat its population of about 135,000.

Alcoholic liver disease in the last four years has doubled in Norfolk and risen steadily in Norwich.

In 2001 267 people in Norfolk were treated for alcoholic liver disease, rising to 412 in 2003 and 513 in 2005.

In Norwich 59 people were seen in 2001, rising to 112 in 2004. The latest figures for the first 11 months of 2005 was 98.

With high-profile celebrities openly admitting alcohol addiction, such as former Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy and the late George Best, alcohol abuse is high on the health agenda.

The rise is being blamed on a "binge-drinking" culture, cheaper drinks and shops and pubs staying open later.

Dr Martin Phillips is a consultant gastroenterologist at the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital.

He said: "People do not realise how much damage they are doing to their livers in the long term.

"They are risking chronic liver damage, alcohol hepatitis and other liver complaints.

"The statistics have shot up in the last four years. We are going to be seeing this whole new generation of people with liver disease in the next few year and it is frightening.

"We are seeing 18 people a week to talk about liver damage. The average age of a person with liver failure is now 20 years lower. In 1992 it was 69 and now it is 49.

"People do not realise they have liver damage until it is too late and 90 per cent of their liver is damaged."

Peter Brambleby, director of public health for Norwich, said drink-related illnesses were definitely on the increase.

He said: "It is a figure that is so hard to calculate because it manifests in so many different places such as mental health.

"The figures from the gastro-intestinal programme, which includes alcohol-related liver disease, show that there was a rise of 10 per cent in the last year of people attending.

"I think people are drinking more because alcohol is cheaper than it used to be be and it is more accessible, with longer drinking hours. It is also down to peer pressure – it is the norm at the moment to drink too much."

Former BBC Norfolk broadcaster Tom Edwards, 60, has publicly battled the booze.

He recently celebrated 11 years of sobriety but his alcohol abuse resulted in him sleeping on the streets and spending two months in Norwich Prison for being drunk and disorderly and non-payment of fines.

Mr Edwards, who now lives in Lincolnshire, said: "My concern is that where do people go now when they need help?

"People with alcohol problems go to their GP and they get detox help but what about after that?

"There is no follow up which gets to the root of the problem. I have noticed more and more young people drinking now.

"I was in Norwich a few weeks ago and there were people in the pubs at all times. It is not just weekends, people are getting extremely drunk during the week too."

But landlords said 24-hour boozing was not to blame.

Rita McClusky, landlord of the Adam and Eve in Bishopgate, said: "I don't think people are buying more in pubs because they're not spending more, but they are buying more from the off licence.

"It's much cheaper now and there's more available so they drink more.

Sheila Mawdsley, landlord of the Artichoke Public House in Magdalen Rd said: "I think people are drinking much more at home than they used to. They drink there more because it's got much cheaper and then come out later. They're not drinking more in the pub though, not in my pub anyway."

In May last year the Evening News reported how children as young as 10 are being treated for alcohol related illnesses and injuries.

The number of deaths between 2000 and 2004 in the east of England has shot up from 438 to 491.

Norwich Evening News