One in four city residents has drink problem, report warns

MORE than one in four people in Hull aged between 16 and 64 have a drink problem, shocking research has revealed.

A total of 44,000 residents, or 26 per cent of the city’s population between those ages, drink to a level that could cause them harm, while a further 8,000, or five per cent, are dependent on alcohol.

Well over a third (35 per cent) of drinkers in the most deprived areas of Hull consume more than twice the recommended daily limits at least once a week.

The findings of the Hull Alcohol Misuse Needs Assessment are contained in a report to a city council committee next week, which will meet to discuss a new strategy to reduce alcohol-related harm over the next three years.

The strategy, which will go before councillors on the Crime and Community Safety Overview and Scrutiny Commission on Thursday, draws on a series of studies that show Hull to be one of the worst areas in England for alcohol abuse.

Latest data from the North West Public Health Observatory ranks the city among the worst 20 per cent of councils for a range of alcohol-related issues, including hospital admissions, violent crime, binge drinking and sexual offences.

The report said: “Alcohol plays an important role in our lives be it socially, culturally and economically.

“However, alcohol misuse affects individuals, families and communities; it places a huge burden on health, social care and the criminal justice system.

“The Hull Alcohol Strategy recognises that developing activities to control the impact of alcohol misuse in the community is everyone’s business.”

An alcohol strategy workshop held recently found that some supermarkets who were asked to contribute data to the authors of the strategy were less helpful than others.

The meeting also called for lessons on alcohol consumption in schools to be given the same priority as education on sex and smoking.

The strategy has four main aims:

n Reduce alcohol intake;

n Reduce alcohol-related crime and anti-social behaviour;

n Help drinkers recognise when they need help and give information on where to get it;

n Reduce drink-related hospital admissions and absences from school and work.

The public health manager at NHS Hull and strategy lead for alcohol, Alex Norman, said the challenge was to overcome a drinking culture common to many post-industrial northern port cities.

He said: “It’s the big old industrial heartlands and often ports; there’s some kind of cultural link between places like Liverpool, Newcastle and Hull.

“I think the two biggest areas are in the North-West and North-East and you can see the parallels – there’s a hard-drinking historical culture.”

Mr Norman said more practical means of tackling alcohol abuse would be introduced through an operational plan once the strategy had been agreed.

He gave as an example the recent introduction of reinforced plastic glasses in pubs and nightclubs in Hull, which had dramatically reduced the number of “glassing” injuries.

An ophthalmic surgeon who would carry out an average of 50 operations a year to repair damage from a glass was now performing about one such procedure a year, he said.

“It’s that kind of simple but effective thing we can do,” he said.

The commission will also see the results of a survey carried out on behalf of Humberside Police Authority, which showed the public’s biggest concern in Hull was drug-dealing or people taking drugs, followed by violent crime, burglary and anti-social behaviour.

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