Salford.. alcoholic capital of Britain
NHS drugs handout is seven times higher than London
.............................. 1,403 ............... 1,120 ................................ 1,111 ...................... 962 ......................... 931 ............................ 900 ............... 877 .............................. 834 ............................ 813
................................. 747 24 .............................. 36 ................................. 40 ......... 44 ................. 47 ................. 47 ............................. 50 .............................. 50 ......................... 51 ................ 58 ............. 58
Source: NHS Digital SALFORD has been revealed as England’s booze capital as figures lay bare a shocking North-South divide in chronic alcohol problems.
NHS figures show 1,403 out of every 100,000 Salford residents were given prescriptions for alcohol-related issues.
That is times the number handed out in London and a whopping 58 times more than in Horsham and Mid Sussex, where the lowest rate was recorded at 24 in every 100,000.
Across the North of England 75,000 prescription drugs were dispensed last year – 486 per 100,000 people. In London it was 189 per 100,000, across the South it was 238 and in the Midlands and the East it was 251.
The figures emerged in a table of local clinical commissioning groups (CCGs).
Nine of the bottom 10 are in the North.
And every CCG in the top 10 is in London or the South.
Professor Colin Drummond, an expert in addiction psychiatry at King’s College London, urged more spending on treating alcoholism.
He said: “Alcohol problems are associated with deprivation, which we know to be worse in the North than in the South.
“Until treatment becomes a priority for governments, the gap is not going to get any narrower.”
The total cost of the 173,000 drugs prescribed in England last year for alcohol dependence was £4.42million – up from £2.4million 10 years ago.
A spokeswoman for Salford City Council said local substance misuse services were rated “outstanding” following the latest inspection.