Teenagers drinking themselves into hospital

The number of children admitted to hospital because of alcohol abuse has jumped over 20 percent in the last five years, with ambulance crews regularly picking up kids who have drunk themselves senseless.

According to NHS figures, up to 20 youngsters a day are being diagnosed with conditions ranging from alcohol poisoning to excessive drinking that cause behavioural disorders.

The worrying statistics were obtained by the BBC’s Panorama programme which will be broadcast on Sunday.

“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,” Ian Forster of the North West Ambulance Service is quoted as saying.

“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,” the Liverpool ambulance man says.

The NHS figures show the number of under 18s admitted to hospital with alcohol-related conditions had grown by 21 percent to 7,579 in 2004/2005 from 6,288 in 2000/2001.

Britain has one of the highest rates of binge drinking among teenagers.

According to the Institute of Alcohol Studies over a quarter of all 15-and 16-year-olds have been on drinking binges three or more times a month.

In contrast France, where it is not unusual for children to be given watered-down wine with meals as a way of introducing them to alcohol, has very low binge-drinking levels among adolescents.

The government has pledged to get tough with underage drinkers and to crack down on off-licences and pubs that sell alcohol to underage drinkers.

But critics argue the problem is still not being taken seriously.

“I think the fact that we’re seeing things getting worse, rather than better, 2 years after a harm reduction strategy, means we need to revisit this very urgently,” Professor Ian Gilmore, president of the Royal College of Physicians, told the programme.

He said the college had been calling for the price of alcohol in real terms to go back towards where it was 20 years ago.

“The government does not want to be accused of being in the nanny state, but I think we’re in a situation at the moment of where nanny knows best, and if we don’t do something, we’re going to regret it in a few years time.”

There are already signs of the damage being done.

The number of middle-aged men drinking themselves to death has more than doubled since 1991. Men aged between 35 and 54 have suffered the biggest rise in alcohol-related deaths, according to the Office for National Statistics.

Deaths among women in the same age group also nearly doubled, fuelling concerns over binge-drinking and rising alcohol consumption in Britain.

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