The pictures regularly fill television screens regularly, especially around Christmas, of young people stumbling drunkenly down British streets in the early hours.
And they do this in considerable numbers. However, the bigger problem facing the National Health Service is not the alcohol consumption of the young, but those older in years.
In the latest Dr Foster Hospital Guide, statistics show one-in-10 of all A&E admissions for people in their early 20s are drink-linked.
However, far more surprisingly, one-in-five of all admissions to emergency wards among those aged 40-44 are directly related to alcohol.
“Public policy on drug and alcohol misuse has emphasised the dangers of binge drinking among the young,” says the body, adding that warnings about long-term drinking are long-established.
“However, serious alcohol and drug-dependency among the middle-aged has not been given the same attention. It is this, however, which is placing one of the biggest burdens on our health system in terms of use of hospital beds,” it went on.
“It’s all too easy to dupe ourselves that binge-drinking teenagers or stag and hen parties in their 20s are the cause of alcohol-related pressures on the health services,” said Matt Tee, chief operating officer at the NHS Confederation. “[These figures] put this myth firmly back in its place and makes it even more important that . . . we seriously examine the impact our drinking habits have on our health – and on our health service.”
Nearly one-in-10 of all admissions in the last year – 415,131 cases – are blamed on alcohol or drug over-use, while 533,000 patients with a known problem with either, or both, were admitted to hospital wards over the last three years.
A life of drink
Over 120,000 people aged 40-49 were admitted with liver damage of varying degrees since 2010.
Meanwhile, the Royal College of Psychiatrists urges that men over-65 should drink less than a pint daily, while women should consume nothing more than a half-pint.
However, the figures emerge against a backdrop of other numbers – this time from the Office of National Statistics – showing Britain is sobering up. Three in five adults report they drank alcohol in the past week – a slow and steady decline visible over the last eight years.
In 2005, 72 per cent of men and 57 per cent of women in Britain said they had drunk alcohol in the seven days before, compared with 64 per cent and 52 per cent respectively in 2012.
The figures for binge-drinking are also down. One-fifth of men say they drank more than eight units – four pints on their heaviest drinking day.
Those aged 16-24 were the least likely to have drunk in the previous week, at 49 per cent, while those aged 45-64 were the most likely, at 65 per cent. Excluding 16 and 17 year olds, there was no difference in consumption totals between those aged 18-24 and 65 and over.
Meanwhile, smokers are twice as likely to have drunk heavily in the past week, at 25 per cent versus 11 per cent.
Though welcome, the consumption figures must be viewed with caution, since people consistently under- report their drinking habits, the statistic office points out.
Spirits in the home
The under-reporting is particularly acute with home-drinking, since spirits are likely to be consumed in greater quantities at home when measures are not always used when pouring drinks.
Next month, one of Britain’s biggest anti-alcohol charities, Alcohol Concern, will run “Dry January”, which encourages post-Christmas tipplers to quit drinking for the opening of the new year.
Doctors insist the financial burden on the NHS – now battling daily with ever tighter budgets – caused by alcohol cannot be sustained.
“We cannot afford to keep spending millions of pounds in today’s economic climate on mopping up the after-effects of an alcohol problem that the government should tackle with a greater emphasis on preventive measures,” complains the British Medical Association.
Doctors despair at the public’s knowledge of the damage that alcohol causes, or of its known links to a variety of diseases. Two-thirds of those surveyed by Alcohol Concern did not know of the link between alcohol and bowel cancer; six out of 10 did not know of the link with strokes.
A similar percentage was ignorant of the link between drink and mouth or throat cancer, though the same numbers did know of the ties with depression and reduced fertility.
England’s chief medical officer, Sally Davies, reminded the public that just two pints of average-strength beer is the limit for men and one large glass of wine is the advised limit for women. She advises that everyone should have at least three days each week where there is no drinking at all.
