Emergency hospital admissions for alcoholic liver disease reached a record high in Leeds - revealing the dire impact of heavy drinking during the pandemic.
Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust made about 1,020 emergency admissions of people diagnosed with alcoholic liver disease in the year up to March 2021, new figures from the NHS show - a record high since data was first recorded in 2016.
Of those, 320 had the potentially life-threatening condition recorded as the main reason for admission - an increase from 255 in 2019-20 and also the highest number recorded. The NHS figures are rounded to the nearest five and count an admitted patient’s first period of care by a consultant.
Pamela Healy of the British Liver Trust said the figures were concerning as the Covid-19 crisis has exacerbated an alarming rise in the disease due to stress, loneliness and lack of support.
"Alcohol-related liver disease cases have been rising at an alarming rate across the UK for a number of decades and the impact of the Covid pandemic has only exacerbated this problem," she said.
“Stress, loneliness and the lack of access to alcohol support services have resulted in many people drinking more alcohol and putting their livers at risk.
“Covid-19 restrictions may have eased but now we’re starting to see the long-term effects of the pandemic in other areas of public health.”
The number of admissions with a primary diagnosis was declining in previous years, suggesting the pandemic could have worsened heavy drinking habits.
And the latest rise happened while emergency admissions fell across England for many other health problems unrelated to Covid-19 as people avoided hospitals to ease pressure on services and try to evade the virus.
Ms Healy called for the Government to introduce a minimum alcohol unit price and reduce the ease of access to alcohol.
In July, Public Health England published a report showing there was a 20% increase in alcohol-specific deaths in 2020, to 6,983.
Alcoholic liver deaths - accounting for the vast majority - rose by 21% in 2020. The previous year the numbers went up by just 3%.
Rosanna O’Connor, director of drugs, alcohol, tobacco and justice at PHE, said at the time that the research suggested lockdown had affected heavy drinkers the most and that they were drinking more.
She added: “Liver disease is currently the second leading cause of premature death in people of working age and this is only set to get worse if the Covid pandemic results in a long-term increase in drinking.
“Tackling harmful drinking must be an essential part of the Covid recovery plan.”
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