Alcohol blamed for two million A&E visits

More than one in 10 people attend A&E wards with an alcohol-related injury while three per cent of patients attend due to alcohol-related illness, a study suggests.

The authors of the report, which is published online in Emergency Medicine Journal, suggest the numbers equate to nearly two million alcohol-related visits to emergency care departments in England and Wales every year.

Researchers found that one third of patients, or 640,000, who attended A&E units required admission to hospital.

They studied 774 patients seeking emergency care at Bristol Royal Infirmary over a four-week period in June 2009.

“Harmful and hazardous alcohol use is a major problem,” the authors write.