Growing numbers of children are ending up in hospital because they have drunk so much, with more girls needing treatment than boys, according to new NHS figures.
Under-18s have an increasingly damaging relationship with alcohol, with tens of thousands every year being attended to by ambulance crews, treated in A&E or admitted overnight, according to a report from the charity Alcohol Concern.
The number of underage drinkers admitted to hospital in England rose by 32% between 2003 and 2007, from around 11,000 in 2003 to more than 14,000 in 2007, NHS hospital records show. A total of 92,220 children and young people under 18 were admitted to hospital between 2002 and 2009 – or 36 under-18s a day.
Girls are 1.3 times more likely than boys to need to be admitted due to alcohol. Between 2004 and 2009 23,347 females under 18 received treatment compared with 18,159 males in that age group.
Alcohol Concern's report paints a grim picture. Underage drinkers across the UK consume the equivalent of 6.9m pints of beer or 1.7m bottle of wine every week, and 630,000 11- to 17-year-olds drink at least twice a week. "The overall picture from the last five to 10 years is one of increasingly rampant drinking and significant rises in the harms that are associated with alcohol use," it says. "Young people are damaging their health at greater levels than before".
Ambulance services in England and Wales have been called out an estimated 16,387 times in the past year to deal with drunken under-18s. Ambulance crews in London, the West Midlands and the north-east answered 4,527 callouts between them, of which 2,365 related to girls, 2,008 to boys and 154 were unrecorded.
Helping children and young people with alcohol problems costs the NHS almost £19m a year, Alcohol Concern estimates.In 2007-08, 64,750 ended up in casualty.
Last year 8,799 under-18s received specialist treatment to tackle drink problems, adds the report, which draws on Freedom of Information answers, parliamentary questions and analysis of NHS statistics.
"As long as alcohol remains as heavily promoted as it currently is, young drinkers will continue to consume far more than they might otherwise, leading to inevitable health harms and wasting ambulance and police time," said the charity's chief executive, Don Shenker. Government action was needed to tackle the "ludicrously cheap price of alcohol" and the NHS needed to offer advice and support to all under-18s who turned up at A&E after drinking too much alcohol, he said.
Chris Sorek, chief executive of responsible drinking group Drinkaware, said the increase in underage admissions was shocking, adding: "We mustn't forget that under-18s are still children, with developing bodies and low tolerance levels, so drinking to the point of needing hospital treatment is extremely dangerous."
Professor Sir Ian Gilmore, chair of the Alcohol Health Alliance UK, a coalition of medical organisations, said: "It is important that parents realise they are role models – their behaviour in relation to alcohol has more impact than what they tell their children."
A Department of Health spokesperson said: "This report shows the devastating impact that alcohol has on the lives young people who drink too much. We must educate them so they understand how bad it is for their health now and in the long term. And we must do more to stop shops selling alcohol to under 18s.
"Everyone has a part to play in this. Parents, police, education and social services need to work together. The new Public Health Service will give communities the power and budget to tackle alcohol problems in their areas."
The Guardian, p6; The Times, p11; Daily Mail, p13