Drink puts a child a week in hospital

Published on Friday 25 January 2008 09:27

MORE than one Lothian school pupil is being admitted to hospital every week due to alcohol misuse.

New statistics show a total of 56 children under 15 were treated over the course of a year – though it is feared these figures might just be the tip of the iceberg.

Just over 60 per cent of the admissions were due to "acute intoxication".

The figures – released to the Evening News by ISD Scotland, the organisation for health information and statistics – show that last year's admissions were the highest in almost a decade.

In 1997, 70 children under 15 were admitted to hospital because of alcohol, but the numbers remained under 50 until 2006.

Twenty-seven of the youngsters admitted to hospital for alcohol-related conditions – which include everything from drink-induced accidents to suffering alcohol psychoses – were from the Capital, while 23 were from West Lothian. Only a handful were from East Lothian and Midlothian. It is not known how many of the children involved were repeat patients.

The recording of the admissions varies from hospital to hospital, and often when alcohol use is suspected but not confirmed, it goes unrecorded.

Tom Wood, chairman of the Edinburgh Action on Alcohol and Drugs team, said he believes the real picture is even bigger.

He said: "I'm surprised it's not higher because we know young people have been drinking more.

"Some of these statistics worry me a little because some people record them, some people don't.

"Saying that, we have to take them on face value and what it shows over the last ten years is that it's not going away, despite all our efforts.

"We have to continue the education in a meaningful and very direct way and remember that parents and grandparents have a hugely important role to play."

The Evening News revealed last month that more than 15 adults a day are admitted to hospital in the Lothians due to alcohol abuse.

Mr Wood fears children who are already hooked on alcohol will end up as one of these statistics.

He said: "There's no doubt at all that if you develop an alcohol habit when you're 14 or 15, the chances of dealing with it are much less.

"That's why it's so important to concentrate on young people's behaviour and not getting into these very hazardous habits."

Dr Fiona Watson, NHS Lothian's clinical lead for substance misuse, said: "There is no clear trend here in the numbers of young people admitted with alcohol-related issues, so we need to be careful about making assumptions based on these figures.

"Unfortunately, alcohol is relatively cheap and accessible and the way forward is to work with licensing boards and the Scottish Government to make alcohol less attractive and available to young people."