ALCOHOL ILLNESS 'MAY CRIPPLE NHS'

Disturbing new figures show drugs and alcohol abuse are causing widespread
damage to Britain's health and social services.

Experts are warning that illnesses and injuries caused by alcohol abuse
cost the NHS up to UKP 3bn a year.

And the government's financial watchdog says drug addicts will continue to
commit half of all crime, because their treatment is so ineffective.

A report by the charity Alcohol Concern says that more than 28,000 hospital
admissions a year are caused by alcohol dependence or poisoning.

Such statistics have prompted warnings that the health service could crack
under the strain of dealing with alcohol-related illness.

Alcohol is implicated in 33,000 deaths every year and one in six people
attending accident and emergency units has alcohol-associated injuries.

This rises to eight out of 10 at peak times.

Alcohol Concern will present its findings at a conference for primary care
health workers on Thursday to alert them to the scale of the problem.

Dr Chris Luke of Cork University Hospital said the NHS would collapse
unless lifestyle issues such as alcohol are tackled.

He said: "The NHS is on the brink of collapse and it is hard to argue
otherwise.

"Health professionals are in a state of despair.

"If one issue illustrates why there is this despair it is the issue of alcohol.

"Alcohol is a lifestyle issue which grows with affluence and is continuing
to worsen steadily."

The warnings follow a report earlier this week by the Medical Council on
Alcohol, which suggests there has been a dramatic increase in excessive
drinking among professional women.

Deaths from alcohol-related disease have increased year-on-year since 1983,
particularly among 27 to 30-year-olds, according to the study.

Doctors are also implicated in the statistics. Figures show over half of
junior doctors drink more than the suggested alcohol units per week.

Alcohol Concern director Eric Appleby said: "We are holding the conference
because we want the new primary care trusts - which will be responsible for
commissioning local alcohol services from April this year - to avoid
falling into the trap met by their predecessors.

"These have consistently underestimated the impact of alcohol misuse on
patients' health and failed to give alcohol the priority it deserves.

"By drawing attention to the scale of the problems, and explaining how they
might be tackled, we hope that primary care workers will be better equipped
to prevent future problems and deal with existing ones."

Drugs

A separate report by the Audit Commission Drug found that drug addicts are
slipping through the net of care because the service is badly organised and
doctors lack appropriate training.

Misuse of drugs is estimated to be the cause of half of all crime and costs
society UKP 4bn a year, but systems set up to treat addicts are
inefficient, the financial watchdog found.

Home Office research suggests that for every extra UKP 1 spent on helping
addicts, UKP 3 would be saved in dealing with the after-effects of
drug-related crime.

Two-thirds of all people arrested test positive for one or more illegal
drugs. And nearly half of those, have been taking heroin or cocaine.

Waiting lists at surgeries and a lack of training among doctors are key
problems in England highlighted in the commission's Changing Habits report.

In one area, with a five-month waiting list for the community drug team,
only one in three clients attended an appointment, the report found.

High workloads and limited care management meant these errant clients were
often not followed up.

More problems stem from the fact that poor links exist between different
agencies such as mental health teams and prisons.

The commission says many doctors shy away from providing specialist help
because they lack the expertise and support.