Shock as drug children taken to hospital

Children under the age of 16 are being admitted to hospitals in the Black Country and Staffordshire after taking class A drugs such as ecstacy or heroin.

New figures show children as young as 12 have received hospital treatment after taking drugs. In one case in Staffordshire, a one-year-old had to be taken into hospital.

Just over 40 children received treatment for problems such as poisoning at three hospital trusts in the region in the last five or six years but, because of the way the information is recorded, the true number of those needing medical attention could even higher. The highest number was recorded at Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust, which had 28 admissions of under-16s between 2004 and earlier this year.

That list includes two 12-year-olds, four 13-year-olds, 10 14-year-olds and 12 15-year-olds. It includes one case of poisoning by heroin, one of poisoning by methadone, 17 of poisoning by other drugs as well as nine cases of poisoning by other narcotics.

At Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust, which runs Cannock Chase Hospital and Stafford Hospital, there were six admissions from April 2004 to March 2009.

In the 2007 and 2008 financial year a one-year-old had to be admitted with what has been termed as "mental and behavioural disorders due to sedatives /hypnotics".

Another case in the 2006/2007 year saw a 14-year-old admitted after using cocaine. A trust spokesman said: "These figures are unlikely to be a true reflection of the number of children and young people who are admitted to hospital following drug ingestions, as they will not include those young people admitted whose primary diagnosis is not drug ingestion."

At The Royal Wolverhampton Hospitals NHS Trust, seven admissions were reported over the same timespan. There were five admissions due to ecstacy, one due to heroin and one because of "magic mushrooms".