Hospital admissions data 08/09

The finalised 08/09 NI 39 hospital admissions data was published by the North West Public Health Observatory's (NWPHO) Local Alchol Profiles for England (LAPE) earlier this month. Their December E-bulletin highlighted some key findings in comparison with the previous year’s figures:

• The latest figures for the National Alcohol Indicator (NI39) show that there were 863,257 admissions to hospital for alcohol-related harm in England in 2007/08, an 8% increase from the previous year or an additional 176 alcohol related admissions every day.
• The numbers of people being admitted to hospital in 2007/08 due to alcohol rose by 6% to 561,642 individuals (an increase of 31,641 people).
• Deaths in 2005-2007 from chronic liver disease increased by 2.8% for men to 10,928 individuals and by 2.4% for women to 6,293 individuals.
• Claims for Incapacity Benefit (IB)/ Severe Disablement Allowance due to alcoholism rose by 2.6% to 42,000 in November 2008, while deaths from transport accidents attributable to alcohol in 2005-2007 fell by 2%, or a decrease of 59 deaths from the previous year.
• The LAs with the highest levels of alcohol-related harm overall are in the North West, while those LAs with the lowest levels are mainly in the south of England.

The NWPHO will soon publish an 'Alcohol Bulletin series' of alcohol segmentation reports in January 2010. They will provide details of alcohol-related attitudes and concerns, alcohol consumption and related hospital admissions by geodemographic segmentation systems (for example, Health ACORN, Mosaic, People and Places, and Office for National Statistics Area). These reports will provide evidence to help identify those groups most at risk from alcohol-related harms and to develop targeted interventions.