Grans on the booze

OAPS IN HOSPITAL MORE THAN TEENS

MORE pensioners are being admitted to hospital for alcohol-related illness than teen boozers – including drinkers in their 90s.

Startling figures show there were 117,690 booze-linked admissions for people aged 60 to 64 and 113,876 for 65 to

69-year-olds between April and December last year. Meanwhile there were 13,951 youngsters, aged 16-19, who required hospital treatment in the same period.

That’s fewer even than the number of admissions for people in their 90s (23,576), NHS Digital figures show.

Julia Sinclair, a Royal College professor, warned: “Drug-related deaths and alcohol-related hospital admissions were already at all-time highs before Covid-19.

“The looming addiction crisis cannot be tackled unless there is substantial investment from Government.”

While lower age groups are now less likely to drink dangerously than a decade ago, levels have risen in baby boomers.

The admissions were for alcoholrelated illnesses, excessive consumption or injuries after drinking.

It comes as the number of people downing high-risk levels of alcohol has almost doubled during lockdown.

Figures show problem drinkers have surged to 8.4million since February 2020. And one in five of us is risking our health by hitting the bottle, the research by the Royal College of Psychiatrists found.

The stress of the pandemic and its financial fallout have been blamed for rocketing numbers drowning their sorrows. Some 40% of middle-class Britons are drinking too much, up from 28% in February, the study said.