MP: 'Too many still drinking too much'

The NHS is not doing enough to tackle dangerous drinking, according to the MP for Gainsborough Edward Leigh.

Mr Leigh, in his role as chairman of the influential Public Accounts Committee, said that almost a third of men and a fifth of women in the UK regularly drink more than the official guidelines state.

"The responsibility for addressing alcohol harm has been handed to the primary care trusts," he said.

"But many have neither drawn up strategies to tackle alcohol harm in their areas nor even have much idea what they are spending on the relevant local services.

"These services are often ill-coordinated, increasing the risk that dependent drinkers, after immediate medical care, will simply relapse into their former drinking habits.

"Each PCT should have to demonstrate what progress it has made towards reducing the number of alcohol-related hospital admissions in its area."

NHS Lincolnshire has invested £1.9m in alcohol abuse services this financial year, up from £1.5m in 2008/09.

And there is no question that the investment is necessary with Lincoln topping the tables in an alcohol misuse study compiled by the North West Public Health Observatory at Liverpool John Moores University.

Lincoln was revealed to be the worst out of 40 local authorities in the East Midlands for the number of men killed by alcohol and the second worse for harmful drinking.

Latest figures for A&E attendances show that 1,328 people attended hospitals in Lincoln, Louth, Boston and Grantham for a booze related complaint in 2008/09.

The county's alcohol services are provided by NHS Lincolnshire and Lincolnshire County Council.

Health portfolio holder Councillor Sue Wooley said: "One of the first tasks of the Alcohol Harm Reduction Board was to produce an Alcohol Harm Reduction Strategy.

"The first draft of this document has been produced and partners have been involved in a consultation process.

"The draft strategy has recently been awarded the 'alcohol concern kitemark'.

"The kitemark recognises that the alcohol strategy meets national recognised standards of good practice.

"The finished strategy will be published to the public at the start of September 2009."

For the full story see Friday's Lincolnshire Echo.