BOOZE-related hospital admissions in Chester cost the taxpayer more than £9 million last year.
Shock data from Western Cheshire Primary Care Trust has shown an increasing amount of binge drinkers are ‘dicing with death’ by drinking ‘dangerous’ amounts of alcohol.
Between April 2009 and March 2010, about 7,400 residents within Cheshire West and Chester were admitted to hospital for alcohol related harm – a staggering 12 per cent increase on the previous year.
A third of attendances at the Countess of Chester Hospital’s Accident and Emergency department were also alcohol-related.
Health chiefs have said alcohol related admissions cost NHS Western Cheshire about £9 million last year. However the figure excludes the costs of A&E activity which would increase the figures even further.
The ‘worrying trend’ comes after the North West Public Health Observatory estimated that 18 per cent of people in the area binge drink.
Figures show that about 8,000 people across the Western Cheshire area are dependent on alcohol, while around 64,500 people drink alcohol in sufficient quantities to put their health at risk.
Of these, around 14,905 are classified as ‘higher risk’ drinkers.
Julie Webster, director of public health, said: “Alcohol-related mortality rates in Western Cheshire are above the national average. The Cheshire West and Chester Alcohol Harm Reduction Strategy sets out what we are doing to encourage people to keep within safe drinking limits.”
The NHS recommends that men should not regularly drink more than three to four units a day and women no more than two to three units a day.
For example, a pint of strong lager contains three units of alcohol and a large glass of wine contains around five units.
Last week a coroner ruled that singer Amy Winehouse died through ‘misadventure’ after she is believed to have drank two-and-a-half bottles of vodka.
An inquest heard she had 416mg of alcohol per 100ml of blood. This was more than five times the legal drink-drive limit, which is 80mg.
The pathologist who conducted her post-mortem examination said 350mg of alcohol per 100ml of blood was considered a fatal level.
Data is not currently available about the rates of alcohol related deaths for the under 35 age group in Western Cheshire however the rate of alcohol related deaths in both males and females of all ages is higher in and around Chester than the national average.