Blackpool worst for hospital drink problems

For every 100,000 admissions to hospital, 1,160 were due to alcohol.

Kingston upon Thames had the lowest rate at 390, figures showed.

Across the UK, there were 339,000 estimated admissions related to alcohol consumption in 2015/16 – three per cent higher than 2014/15 and 22 per cent higher than 2005/6.

This represents 2.1 per cent of all hospital admissions, which has remained a stable proportion over the last decade.

Some 39 per cent of patients were aged between 45 and 64 and six out of 10 were men.

The report also found that alcohol has become four per cent more affordable since 2006. Alcohol intake across the population rose 0.7 per cent in 2015 to 9g of alcohol per person per day.

But the proportion of 11 to 15-year-olds who have ever had an alcoholic drink has been declining since 2003, the data showed.

Health experts today warned baby boomers are putting their health at risk due to excessive and regular drinking.

New data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) for England shows that people aged 45 to 64 and those over 65 are frequently drinking at more hazardous levels.

Married and cohabiting couples are also more likely to knock back alcohol on five or more days a week than single people, though they are slightly less likely to binge drink.

The data shows that, in 2016, 60 per cent of women aged 45 to 64 had drunk alcohol in the last week – the highest proportion of any age group.

Some 69 per cent of men had done the same, also the highest of any age group.

Dr Tony Rao, co-chairman of the older people’s substance misuse working group at the Royal College of Psychiatrists, said: “These figures show that alcohol abuse is not a ‘young person problem’.”