The only centrally available data on treatment for alcohol-related health problems are the number of admissions to hospital for alcohol and alcohol-related health problems. An individual may account for more than one admission.
While it is possible to analyse the admissions data to determine the number of individuals aged 11 to 18 years admitted to hospital for alcohol and alcohol-related health problems, this could be done only at disproportionate cost.
The following table gives the number of alcohol-related finished admissions for patients aged 11 to 18 by London borough and Government office region for each year from 2002-03 to 2006-07. 2006-07 is the latest year for which data are available. The figures relate to the number of admissions rather than the number of individuals.
2002-03 2003-04 2004-05 2005-06 2006-07 London borough City of London 0 0 0 * 0 Barking and Dagenham 49 47 37 55 55 Barnet 37 35 56 76 88 Bexley 28 53 63 69 58 Brent 15 25 31 45 38 Bromley 35 66 65 90 76 Camden 27 33 34 46 39 Croydon 50 72 98 101 93 Ealing 54 67 42 52 75 Enfield 36 42 49 72 72 Greenwich 38 41 55 64 49 Hackney 40 39 29 56 49 Hammersmith and Fulham 26 29 35 40 50 Haringey 38 29 41 49 61 Harrow 26 19 35 36 30 Havering 43 65 50 73 82 Hillingdon 39 56 84 83 88 Hounslow 33 40 41 74 38 Islington 46 45 41 52 62 Kensington and Chelsea 15 13 12 24 15 Kingston upon Thames 39 46 41 44 36 Lambeth 39 40 53 46 52 Lewisham 37 58 48 49 60 Merton 41 45 46 49 40 Newham 38 49 44 36 69 Redbridge 39 37 42 58 70 Richmond upon Thames 29 30 28 43 39 Southwark 43 39 41 40 41 Sutton 65 52 55 52 56 Tower Hamlets 24 33 41 46 46 Waltham Forest 39 57 46 50 78 Wandsworth 46 35 39 54 41 Westminster 16 20 22 * 24 Government office region North East 1,211 1,161 1,357 1,553 1,608 North West 2,746 3,054 3,436 3,996 4,138 Yorkshire and the Humber 1,766 1,912 1,975 2,102 2,136 East Midlands 1,163 1,253 1,331 1,436 1,490 West Midlands 1,613 1,758 1,825 2,243 2,288 East 1,182 1,328 1,329 1,377 1,449 London 1,171 1,358 1,445 1,749 1,769 South East 1,938 2,192 2,492 2,711 2,610 South West 1,357 1,614 1,827 2,082 2,113 Unknown/no fixed abode 148 156 192 273 261 England 14,296 15,787 17,211 19,523 19,864 Notes: 1. Includes activity in English national health service hospitals and English NHS commissioned activity in the independent sector. 2. Small numbers: To protect patient confidentiality, figures between one and five have been suppressed and replaced with ‘*’ (an asterisk). Where it was possible to identify numbers from the total due to a single suppressed number in a row or column, an additional number (the next smallest) has been suppressed. 3. Alcohol-related admissions: The number of alcohol-related admissions is based on the methodology developed by the North West Public Health Observatory (NWPHO). Following international best practice, the NWPHO methodology includes a wide range of diseases and injuries in which alcohol plays a part and estimates the proportion of cases that are attributable to the consumption of alcohol. Details of the conditions and associated proportions can be found in the report Jones et al. (2008) Alcohol-attributable fractions for England: Alcohol-attributable mortality and hospital admissions. 4. Figures for under 16s only include admissions where one or more alcohol-specific conditions were listed. This is because the research on which the attributable fractions are based does not cover under 16s. Alcohol-specific conditions are those that are wholly attributed to alcohol—that is, those with an attributable fraction of one. They are: Alcoholic cardiomyopathy (142.6) Alcoholic gastritis (K29.2) Alcoholic myopathy (G72.1) Alcoholic polyneuropathy (G62.1) Alcohol-induced pseudo-Cushing's syndrome (E24.4) Degeneration of nervous system due to alcohol (G31.2) Mental and behavioural disorders due to use of alcohol (F10) Accidental poisoning by and exposure to alcohol (X45) Ethanol poisoning (T51.0) Methanol poisoning (T51.1) Toxic effect of alcohol, unspecified (T51.9). 5. Number of episodes in which the patient had an alcohol-related primary or secondary diagnosis: These figures represent the number of episodes where an alcohol-related diagnosis was recorded in any of the 14 (7 prior to 2002-03) primary and secondary diagnosis fields in a Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) record. Each episode is only counted once in each count, even if an alcohol-related diagnosis is recorded in more than one diagnosis field of the record. 6. Finished admission episodes: A finished admission episode is the first period of inpatient care under one consultant within one health care provider. Finished admission episodes are counted against the year in which the admission episode finishes. Please note that admissions do not represent the number of in-patients, as a person may have more than one admission within the year. 7. Primary diagnosis: The primary diagnosis is the first of up to 14 (7 prior to 2002-03) diagnosis fields in the HES data set and provides the main reason why the patient was in hospital. 8. Secondary diagnoses: As well as the primary diagnosis, there are up to 13 (six prior to 2002-03) secondary diagnosis fields in HES that show other diagnoses relevant to the episode of care. 9. Data Quality: HES are compiled from data sent by more than 300 NHS trusts and primary care trusts (PCTs) in England. Data are also received from a number of independent sector organisations for activity commissioned by the English NHS. The NHS Information Centre for health and social care liaises closely with these organisations to encourage submission of complete and valid data and seeks to minimise inaccuracies and the effect of missing and invalid data via HES processes. While this brings about improvement over time, some shortcomings remain. Source: Hospital Episode Statistics (HES), The NHS Information Centre for health and social care