100 boozers go into hospital every week...

NEARLY 100 drinkers a week are admitted to hospital in Oldham with a booze-related case.

Annual figures from the NHS Information Centre show alcohol was behind 5,135 people in Oldham being admitted in 2009/10 compared with 4,538 in 2008/09 — an increase of 13 per cent.

The North-West has one of the highest rates of alcohol-related hospital admissions in the country.

And across England the number of admissions has now topped one million, according to the Statistics on Alcohol report.

The NHS Information Centre chief executive Tim Straughan said: “The report shows the number of people admitted to hospital each year in England for alcohol-related problems has topped one million for the first time.

“This report provides health professionals and policy makers with a useful picture of the health issues relating to alcohol use and misuse.

“It also highlights the importance of policy makers and health professionals in recognising and tackling alcohol misuse which in turn could lead to savings for the NHS.”

A new health survey, commissioned by the Greater Manchester Health Commission, has outlined more accurate figures on how many people drink alcohol in the county.

Results showed that 68 per cent of people in Greater Manchester are low-risk drinkers but a shocking 9 per cent of drinkers, put away an average of 96 units per week.

Regionally, there are 515 prescriptions for alcohol-dependency items per 100,000 of the population in the North-West.

Cliff Morris, chairman of the Greater Manchester Health Commission, said: “These findings are important to our overall understanding of consumption patterns and give us some more valuable information on improving people’s health.

“We know that there is work still to do in tackling excessive alcohol consumption in Greater Manchester and we are continuing to work with other parts of the country to tackle something that ruins the quality of many people’s lives.

“This latest information will further help to shape our discussions and future plans for a healthier Greater Manchester.”