The bill for treating patients with alcohol-related illness reached £35 million in just one year for health services across the Black Country and Worcestershire, new figures have revealed.

The money was spent on admitting and treating 28,845 people into hospital with illnesses directly linked to alcohol consumption. The highest figure was from Worcestershire, which, between 2008 and 2009 saw an estimated 10,900 people admitted into hospital.

Their alcohol-related illnesses, costing the county’s NHS trust £22,200,000.

NHS Dudley spent more than £5million in the same time, admitting just over 7,000 people, while Wolverhampton City Primary Care Trust (PCT) spent £3m on 4,264 people admitted, and Sandwell PCT spent £4.6m on 6,640.

Worcestershire also had the highest cost per patient, at £2,036, compared to £716 per patient in Dudley and Wolverhampton and £696 in Sandwell. Figures from Walsall PCT were unavailable.

NHS Dudley spokesperson Rebecca Bourne said: “Alcohol misuse is one of the biggest challenges in the borough of Dudley and the amount of people who end up in hospital due to alcohol-related injuries really highlights the problem.

“Tackling this issue is a priority for NHS Dudley and we continue to work with our partners to address this problem.” The figures follow this week’s emergency budget announcement, which did not introduce the expected increases in alcohol duty that many had predicted.

Ros Jervis, consultant in public health and the alcohol lead for Wolverhampton City PCT, said the increase was something health bodies were campaigning for.
“We are unable to say what impact that would have in terms of the number of people admitted to hospital with alcohol-related problems as that is impossible to predict,” she added.

“However we do know that the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence ( NICE) believes that making alcohol less affordable is the most effective way of reducing alcohol-related harm.”