Scotland’s poorest ‘14 times more likely to end up in hospital due to drugs’

PEOPLE living in Scotland’s poorest areas are 14 times more likely to spend time in hospital because of drugs than their more affluent counterparts, new figures have shown.

Data released by Public Health Scotland (PHS) yesterday shows the rate of hospital patients among people in the lowest measure on the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD) is 531.99 per 100,000 of the population, compared to just 37.24 in the most affluent.

The statistics also show the disparity between the rich and poor in terms of the rate of hospital stays, with the figure for the most deprived standing at 742.42 per 100,000 compared to 45.65 for the most well off.

The data showed the socioeconomic ranking of Scots correlated with their likelihood to face a stay in hospital due to drugs, with SIMD 1 – the most deprived – seeing the highest rates of hospitalisation, with the chance decreasing markedly between SIMD 1 and 2.

The figures come as Scotland is gripped by a drugs crisis, which claimed the lives of 1,264 people in 2019

The total figures for hospital stays were also the highest on record.

In 2019-20, there were 282.24 stays in hospital because of drugs per 100,000 of the population, compared with 73.57 in 1996-97, according to data released by Public Health Scotland.

A spokeswoman for the Scottish Government said: “We have said a national mission is needed to tackle the drug deaths emergency and we have allocated an additional £250 million over the next five years to improve access to services.”