Painkiller overdoses soar

THE number of patients admitted to hospital for overdosing on painkillers has doubled in a decade, official figures show.

Doctors say it is a ‘very worrying’ consequence of pills being prescribed too readily – as well as people buying drugs online.

There were 10,999 admissions in 2016/17 for poisoning by opioid painkillers and other narcotics, which include codeine, morphine and fentanyl. This is up from 5,085 in 2006/7, the data from NHS Digital shows, although it does not reveal if patients overdosed by accident or after becoming addicted to their drugs.

Dr Jane Quinlan, a consultant in anaesthesia and pain management at Oxford University Hospitals, said: ‘These figures confirm fears the increase in opioid prescribing and availability has broader consequences.’