MORE people are admitted to hospital because of alcohol-related problems in the North East than any other region, new figures have revealed.

But other figures showed that less crime was linked to alcohol in the region than anywhere else.

Leading alcohol campaigners last night called for action after alcohol- related hospital admission numbers soared in every part of the country.

In the North East, there were 2,406 admissions for alcohol per 100,000 people compared with a national average of 1,743. This was up by almost 900 compared with five years ago.

The director of Balance, the North East Alcohol Office, called for Government action to stop the worrying trend.

Colin Shevills said: “We need the Government to provide the right kind of action to help people reduce their drinking.

“Alcohol needs to be priced more sensibly, promotions need to be restricted, as does advertising. Alcohol is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week which is adding to the problems we are facing.


“The region has had the highest alcohol-related hospital admissions for some time, so these latest figures are no surprise but worrying.

“The fact is that there are too many people drinking too much, too often.”

In our region, the highest rate of hospitalisations was in the local authority area of North Tyneside, with 2,654.

The report, from the North West Public Health Observatory at Liverpool John Moores University, showed there were 1.1 million admissions in England relating to alcohol in 2009/10 – 879 more per day than five years previously.

North Tyneside was also ranked as the area with the most estimated binge drinkers in the country, with research showing 33.2% of people are considered to binge on alcohol.

Other detail, drawn from official crime statistics, shows that nationally there were 7.6 crimes per 1,000 people committed that were linked to alcohol.

The North East had the lowest figures for any region though with an average of 5.7.