Booze putting kids in hospital

NEARLY 50 hospital admissions for under 18s have taken place in Halton because of alcohol over the last three years.

New figures show that underage drinkers were admitted to hospital in the borough 47 times between 2013-14 and 2015-16.

The figures translate to one hospitalisation for every 180 children in Runcorn and Widnes and more than half of those – 28 – were girls.

Across the whole Liverpool City Region, underage drinkers were admitted to hospital 502 times.

According to the data from Public Health England, across the country under 18s were admitted to hospital for alcohol-specific conditions nearly 13,000 times – 7,768 of them girls and 5,230 boys.

Within the region, under 18s in St Helens were the most likely to be hospitalised because of drinking.

Children there were taken to hospital on 89 occasions – which translates to one hospitalisation for every 122 children in the area.

That is one of the highest rates of underage drinking related hospital visits in England, and more than twice the national average.

Across the country, the thousands of hospital admissions of under 18 year olds for alcohol-specific conditions works out as the equivalent of one for every 268 children in England.

In Liverpool itself, children were admitted to hospital for drinking a total of 96 times – one hospitalisation for every 281 people under the age of 18.

Despite the shockingly high numbers of children still having to go to hospital because of drinking, the figure has been declining steadily for the last 10 years.

Between 2006-07 and 2008-09, more than three times as many kids were being hospitalised by alcohol in Merseyside than there were over last three years – with almost 1,500 admissions in total.