The number of alcohol-related hospital stays in Dundee has plummeted over the past eight years, new figures have revealed.
New statistics show the number of people admitted to hospital in the past year was just above the national average — at 673 people per 100,000 of the population.
The year before, there were 776 per 100,000 — 14% above that year’s national average. Overall, that represents a 13% improvement in Dundee in the space of a year. There has also been a huge drop since the city’s worst year in recent times — 2008-09 — when the rate was 831 people per 100,000.
Councillor Ken Lynn, chairman of Dundee’s Health and Social Care Partnership (DHSCP) and an NHS Tayside board member, said he was delighted with the Scottish Public Health Observatory (SPHO) figures. He added: “The message the Scottish Government has been trying to get across about drinking less is working. That in turn is helping alleviate other drink-related problems, like drug use and crime.”
In Perth & Kinross and Angus, there were 329 and 395 admissions per 100,000 people respectively — the second and third-best performing local authority areas in Scotland. Mr Lynn said: “Alcohol abuse is linked with deprivation, and deprivation is certainly higher in Dundee than Perth & Kinross and Angus, so I’m not surprised.
“The DHSCP has made health inequality a major priority, and a key way we’re tackling that is with social prescribing. People turn to drink for a whole host of reasons. With social prescribing, we look to help support the person through an agency which can deal with that.”
The SPHO’s definition of an alcohol-related hospital stay is “general acute inpatient and day-case stays with a diagnosis of alcohol misuse”.
Dr Drew Walker, director of public health at NHS Tayside, said: “The alcohol-related hospital stays data released by SPHO continues to show a welcome general downward trend since 2008-09 across Tayside as a whole.
“However, parts of Tayside still remain above the national average and alcohol continues to have an impact on communities in the area.
“Nationally, areas with higher levels of deprivation have higher levels of alcohol-related harm which would explain why Dundee is above the national average.”