Abuse ‘Getting Worse’
Updated: 07:12, Friday November 17, 2006
Twenty children are being admitted to hospital every day with alcohol-related illness, it has been revealed.
They are diagnosed with blood poisoning and behavioural problems caused by binge boozing.
NHS Figures show the number of youngsters admitted to hospital with alcohol-related conditions has risen by more than 20% in the last five years.
In Cheshire and Merseyside alone, more than 10 under-18s per week are admitted because of drink abuse.
Ian Forster, of the North West Ambulance Service, said: “It’s not unusual for a child to have drunk a litre of vodka – that would have me on my back for three or four weeks.
“Resources are quite sparse anyway, so to be dragged from pillar to post all over the city for underage drinking, which is avoidable, is keeping us from the patients that we’re trained to treat.”
In the last five years, the number of under-18s being admitted to hospital with alcohol-related conditions has risen from 6,288 in 2000/1 to 7,579 in 2004/5.
Experts say the Government’s harm reduction strategy, which aims to address the problem of alcohol abuse in society, is not working.
Professor Ian Gilmore, president of the Royal College of Physicians, said: “I think the fact that we’re seeing things getting worse, rather than better, two years after a harm reduction strategy, means we need to revisit this very urgently.
“What we cannot afford to do is wait the 40 years that it took with smoking.”
A Department of Health spokeswoman said: “Tackling binge drinking is a priority. Although levels of binge drinking are no longer rising, there is no room for complacency.”
20 kids a day :you_crazy :you_crazy
Does anybody have the statistic* on drugs ?
Havent been able to find any myself..
