Big fall in number of child drinkers

A quarter of secondary school pupils drank alcohol at least once a week in 2001, but in 2010 only 13 per cent of 11 to 15-year-olds had an alcoholic drink, the Health and Social Care Information Centre study said.

About half the number of children today think it is acceptable for them or their friends to drink or get drunk than in 2003.

The changing attitude to alcohol among youngsters reflects a general downward trend in drinking in England – but a worsening problem of alcohol dependency in a minority.

In 1998, 75 per cent of men drank once a week, and 50 per cent of all women had a tipple. By 2010, that number had fallen for men to 68 per cent although it increased slightly for women to 54 per cent.

People are also drinking more responsibly, with a fall in the number of binge drinkers in the past six years.

But excessive drinking is landing more people than ever in hospital. Ten years ago 142,000 people were taken to hospital for injuries or illnesses directly related to alcohol but by last year that number had rocketed 40 per cent to almost 199,000 people. Nearly 120,000 people in Yorkshire were admitted to hospital for problems wholly or partly related to drink.

More people are dying from alcohol consumption. In 2010 there were over 6,650 deaths directly related to alcohol, an increase of more than 20 per cent on 2001.

Figures show 34 per cent of people in Yorkshire had drunk more than recommended safe levels on at least one day in the previous week, the third highest of any region in England. Some 18 per cent had been binge drinking on at least one day in the previous week, the second highest behind the North West.

NHS Confederation deputy director of policy Jo Webber said: “These figures show the burden of alcohol on the health service is unsustainable. Alcohol is already costing the NHS more than £3bn a year and the problem is taking an intolerable toll on our society. In some parts of the country more than a fifth of A&E admissions are alcohol related. The NHS can of course carry on picking up the tab for our nation’s drinking. But if it does so without some consideration being given by society as a whole to the price and availability of alcohol, we will be using a sticking plaster solution for a national problem.”

Andrew Cowan from Diageo, the world’s largest producer of spirits, said: “There is no room for complacency when it comes to alcohol misuse, but these figures do show that efforts by the drinks industry and Government to tackle the issues of the minority who misuse alcohol are having a positive impact.”

Numbers of patients spending more than four hours in A&E have increased by a quarter to reach the highest level since 2004, a study by the King’s Fund think tank has found.

Around 4.2 per cent of patients spent more than four hours in A&E before being discharged or admitted from January to March, compared with 3.4 per cent last year.

Report authors said the increase reflected growing pressures on hospitals.

They said the Government’s national target that no more than five per cent of patients face more than a four-hour wait in A&E was met in 2011-12. But 48 NHS trusts breached the threshold between January and March compared with 18 in the second quarter on 2011.

In a survey of 60 NHS trusts, the study also found two in five did not meet their productivity targets in 2011-12 – broadly similar findings to analysis by the Yorkshire Post in April.

The charity’s chief economist John Appleby said: “The productivity challenge will only get harder so evidence that large numbers of NHS organisations failed to meet their productivity targets last year does not bode well.”