Drunken patients swamping A&E

Drunken patients are swamping London casualty departments at a rate of nearly 400 a week despite massive campaigns to cut binge drinking.

New figures reveal that alcohol-related admissions have soared by 40 per cent since the Government promised to tackle the problem in 2004.

In some places the number of binge drinkers taking up hospital beds has risen by 70 per cent.

Hospital doctors and nurses are being forced to deal with thousands more self-inflicted accidents every month instead of genuine emergencies.

It comes amid growing pressure on Gordon Brown to restrict alcohol sales after a think tank said 24-hour drink laws are fuelling the crisis.

London hospitals saw almost 20,000 alcohol-related admissions through accident and emergency departments in the year to April 2006, according to data obtained by the London Assembly Liberal Democrats.

But the figure rises to more than 23,000 when chronic alcoholics with planned appointments are included.

In the year to 2004 - when the Government's first "alcohol strategy" was published - there were more than 14,260 admissions through A&E where alcohol was a key cause. Overall there has been a 70 per cent rise in admissions across London since 2003.

Geoff Pope, Lib-Dem health spokesman on the Assembly, said: "Alcohol abuse is putting huge pressure on frontline NHS services."

The Evening Standard last week revealed that paramedics have seen a 12 per cent rise in alcohol abuse cases since 24-hour drinking was introduced.

But today's figures show that hospitals are bearing the brunt of the crisis.

In Camden alone, where one in four residents drinks to dangerous levels, almost 1,200 people were admitted - up 50 per cent on 2004. In Wandsworth emergency admissions have risen almost 70 per cent, to 758 a year.

At the Royal Free Hospital in Hampstead, the Standard saw nurses tied up for an hour with a drunken patient who was refusing treatment.

The Department of Health argues that a new strategy will improve alcohol labelling and target under-18s.