MORE patients are being admitted to North-East hospitals because of alcohol than in any other part of England, according to a new report.

The report, from the NHS Information Centre, concluded that about one in four adults in England are now classed as “hazardous”

drinkers.

A analysis of figures for 2007 found that one in three (33 per cent) men and about one in six (16 per cent) women drink so much they are at risk of serious conditions such as liver disease and depression.

And nearly one in ten men (nine per cent) and four per cent of women showed some signs of alcohol dependence.

People drink more than average in the North-East, North-West, and Yorkshire and the Humber, with the most moderate drinking occurring in the South-East and South-West.

For the first time, the figures showed the number of people being admitted to hospital suffering from injuries or illness directly or indirectly involving alcohol.

The North-East had the highest number of admissions with a 2,046 per 100,000 of the population, slightly ahead of the North-West figure of about 1,944 per 100,000.

The North-East also had the highest number of prescriptions for a drug used to treat alcohol dependence, Campral – 309 prescriptions per 100,000 people.

Yorkshire and the Humber had the highest number of prescriptions for another drug used to treat alcohol dependency called Antabuse – 132 prescriptions per 100,000 people.

The cost of supplying such drugs on the NHS has increased from £1.7m in 2003 to £2.4m nationally.

The annual number of alcohol- related admissions to hospital in England rose to 863,000 in 2007-8, a 69 per cent increase on the figures for 2002-3 when there were 510,200 such admissions.

NHS safe drinking levels are no more than three to four units of alcohol per day for men and two to three per day for women.

Don Shenker, chief executive of Alcohol Concern, said the country faced “an escalating public health crisis” until action is taken.

Colin Shevills, director of Balance, the North-East Alcohol Office, said: “We are drinking too much alcohol as a region and there is a huge price to pay in terms of our health, the impact on our families and the effects on society as a whole.

“Alcohol can play an important part in the great North- East night out, but it is also a drug and neebut it is also a drug and needs to be treated with respect.”