Wigan hospital booze case scourge

Wigan continues to have problems with residents being admitted to hospital for alcohol-related issues, new health data shows.

The borough performed worse than average in every category of the provisional statistics released for the second quarter of 2019-20, which ran between July and September last year.

Some of the most worrying involved women being rushed into hospital, with Wigan’s figures for these categories around the worst 25 per cent of local authorities in the country.

Now the Healthier Wigan Partnership is urging residents who have problems with booze to engage with the schemes running locally to help cut down the harm alcohol is doing.

Public Health England, which records the data, uses two measures of alcohol-related entry to hospital: narrow and broad.

Narrow admissions refer to cases where the main reason for going into hospital is attributable to drink, whereas the broad category covers admissions primarily due to alcohol or where a secondary diagnosis of a condition or disease to do with booze is made.

Data covering the most recent quarter to be published from last year makes for grim reading in Wigan, with the borough recording an admission rate of 798 per 100,000 people in the narrow category and 2,758 for broadly alcohol-related admissions.

This compares to a North West average of 701 and an England benchmark of 619 for narrow alcohol-related hospital admission.

Wigan is also considerably over the wider averages for more broadly related admissions too, where the figures are 2,587 for the North West and 2,244 for England.

Among women the stats are even starker. Wigan’s narrow admissions rate of 593 females per 100,000 compares to averages of 492 for the region and 462 for England.

For broadly alcohol-related entry to hospital Wigan’s rate for women of 1,929 is just under the rate of 1,947 which is what the worst-performing 25 per cent of local authorities in England are at or below.

The Healthier Wigan Partnership said it recognises alcohol consumption is causing severe health problems in the borough and outlined a range of things it is doing to tackle it.

Prof Kate Ardern (left), Wigan Council’s director for public health, said: “Harmful drinking can impact people’s physical and mental health and that is why reducing alcohol-related harm is a key priority for us.

“Establishing strong links with partner organisations and working with our Drug & Alcohol Service, We Are With You, a number of local initiatives have been developed to curb the number of the alcohol-related issues in the Borough.

“Local initiatives include the Wigan Council funded Active Case Management pathway, delivered by We Are With You, Wrightington Wigan and Leigh NHS Trust and other partners.

“It involves providing intensive support to high risk, complex individuals and helping them with other circumstances that could affect their recovery, such as accommodation or domestic violence concerns.

“The pathway has been operational for a number of years and has been proven to have significantly reduced the number of people admitted to hospital by enabling staff to identify risks earlier.

“We have also trained volunteers as part of the ‘Communities in Charge of Alcohol’ programme where volunteers utilise their community knowledge and connections to support individuals to reduce their drinking or access support.”

Guidelines suggest people should not be drinking more than 14 units of alcohol a week and spreading out their consumption rather than bingeing on a couple of nights.

We Are With You supports people affected by alcohol problems in Wigan and is available on 01942 487578 or online at www.wearewithyou.org.uk