Alcohol costing NHS £106m a year in the Black Country and Staffordshire

Alcohol-related healthcare cost the NHS £106.6 million in one year in the Black Country and Staffordshire, new figures revealed today.

More than a quarter of a million people – almost one in five – are classed as drinking so much they are at risk of damaging their health.

And a further 81,706 are considered to be drinking at 'very heavy levels which significantly increases the risk of damaging their health and may have already caused some harm to their health' according to a new map detailing the costs and admissions to hospital or other services related to booze.

Nearly a thousand people died in a single year because of drink-related illnesses in Staffordshire, Wolverhampton, Dudley, Sandwell and Walsall.

It comes as the West Midlands saw a million people require some form of hospital or NHS care because of alcohol – 10 per cent of the admissions across the whole of England.

Now there are renewed calls for the Government to bring in minimum pricing for alcohol and do more to provide specialist treatment and care.

Each adult treated by the NHS for alcohol-related illnesses or injuries costs between £62 and £74 in the Black Country and Staffordshire.

The average spend is around £63.

Charity Alcohol Concern has produced a map charting the impact of alcohol on health services.

It found that total alcohol admissions – including inpatient and outpatient care and attendance at accident and emergency – hit 10 million cases last year.

And 10 per cent of those cases in England were in the West Midlands alone.

Alcohol-related healthcare costs in Staffordshire were an estimated £43.9m, equating to £62 per adult.

In Sandwell it was £18.1m or £74 per adult while in Dudley it came to £16.6m, £65 per adult.

Walsall's health services spent £14.1m or £65 per adult while Wolverhampton's incurred costs of £13.9m, equating to £69 per adult. In the Black Country and Staffordshire the cost relating to 'hypertensive diseases' – conditions caused by high blood pressure from drinking too much – was in excess of £28m.

But there were also costs as a result of alcohol-related breast cancer, head and neck cancer, gastro-intestinal cancers and epilepsy or epileptic seizures.

The charity said 9.6 million people in England are now drinking in excess of Government guidelines, of whom 2.4 million are classed as 'high risk'.

According to the figures, men in the 55-75 age range are the most likely to be admitted to hospital due to alcohol misuse.

In addition, for the first time the burden of a number of alcohol-related conditions has been mapped, demonstrating the wider health and financial impact unsafe drinking is having. But the figures show it is not simply binge-drinking young people going out and having too much that is having a major impact on healthcare.

The age group of 55 to 74 was actually the one that cost the health service the most in terms of booze-related treatment.

Almost half of all head and neck cancer inpatient admissions are attributable to alcohol, as are 15 per cent of gastro-intestinal cancers, 14 per cent of blood-pressure related diseases and 23 per cent of epilepsy admissions.

High risk drinking is classified as people who drink more than six to eight units of alcohol a day, equivalent to three pints of ordinary strength beer or three glasses of wine.

But even those who drink two to four units a day are classed as being at 'increasing risk'. Experts are concerned that there remains a lack of understanding from individuals on how their drinking is impacting on their health and are calling for national and local organisations to work together to provide appropriate support and to address the challenge.

In Staffordshire there were 399 deaths in a 12 month period due to alcohol, with 99 of them down to chronic liver disease.

In Dudley 53 died due to chronic liver disease and in Sandwell there were 51 deaths due to the condition.

In Wolverhampton the figure was 41 and in Walsall 32.

Last year councils took over responsibility for public health, including the commissioning of alcohol misuse treatment services.

Councillor Paul Moore, who oversees health on Sandwell Council, said: "We have just committed to a significant investment for a drug and alcohol treatment centre in Smethwick.

"Alcohol misuse is one of the top priorities.We need to do more to combat alcohol misuse across the West Midlands.

"We have invested in new treatment facilities but it's not just about sending people for treatment.

"We need to do more in the community too."

Earlier this year new rules came into effect that banned supermarkets from selling drink as a loss leader – charging less than it cost them to buy it in order to boost sales of other products.

Last year the Home Office dropped a plan to follow Scotland's lead by setting a minimum price per unit of alcohol.

"But researchers at the University of Sheffield said that minimum pricing would have helped to save lives.

They said the ban as it stands will only prevent 14 deaths and 500 hospital admissions in England each year.

But they claim a 45p minimum unit price would save 624 deaths and 23,700 admissions annually.

However, the Scottish system of a 50p minimum unit price for alcohol cannot be implemented until the end of legal proceedings brought by the Scottish Whisky Association.

Should there be a minimum unit price for alcohol? Would this reduce the problem? Join in the debate below.

Norman Baker, the Liberal Democrat Home Office minister, said: "Minimum unit alcohol pricing remains on the table.

"We can't sensibly take it forward until the outcome of the Scottish court case. But I'm personally sympathetic to the idea." But Valerie Vaz, Labour MP for Walsall South and a member of the Commons Health Committee, said the government should bring in the minimum price.

She said: "The evidence is clear that this is needed. It has worked in Canada.

"Clearly something needs to be done quickly. I am very concerned about these figures.

"We have to help people to get proper treatment and alcohol specialist nurses would be one way to do that.

"Alcohol-related issues take up three per cent of the entire NHS budget."

South Staffordshire Conservative MP Gavin Williamson said: "We are seeing the consequences of the decline of the community pub.

"There are young people pre-loading on drink before going out as opposed to having a pint in the pub. I'm not personally in favour of telling people what to do. But I do think we have to work to make sure people understand the consequences of excessive drinking, both in terms of their health and the costs.

"We don't want to get to the stage of the nanny state gone mad."

Ros Jervis, Wolverhampton's director of public health, said: "Last year we commissioned a new drug and alcohol treatment service, Recovery Near You, which is helping an increasing number of individuals complete its treatment programme.

"It is not only helping people deal with their addition, but also get the skills they need to find a job and rebuild their relationships.

"We are also helping schools to run sessions about the dangers of drugs and alcohol for their pupils."