The BBC wheel out their fakecharity template yet again (the clue is at the end where a government spokesman agrees that 'more must be done'):
The number of people admitted to hospital in the UK because of problem drinking could rise to 1.5 million a year by 2015, a charity says. Alcohol Concern estimates that it will cost the NHS £3.7 bn annually [up from £2.7 bn at present] if nothing is done to stop the increase...
The charity says the number of people being treated in hospital for alcohol misuse has gone from 500,000 in 2002-3 to 1.1 million in 2009-10.
I try and keep track of the constant doubling of chocolate rations alcohol-related admissions, so here's a quick summary:
Daily Telegraph, 22 July 2008:
Alcohol is thought to cause about 17,000 cases of cancer a year and £2 bn of NHS money [sic] is spent every year treating patients with alcohol-related diseases...
Office for National Statistics figures showed last month that in 2005/6, hospitals admitted 208,000 people with diseases caused by drink. That was double the figure 10 years before... Officials estimate that the true figure for alcohol-induced admissions last year was 811,000.
BBC, 15 March 2009 (who clearly hadn't read the memo):
The NHS bill for alcohol abuse is an estimated £2.7 bn a year. The most recent figures show hospital admissions linked to alcohol use have more than doubled in England since 1995. Alcohol was the main or secondary cause of 207,800 NHS admissions in 2006/7, compared to 93,500 in 1995/96.
I think that the real giveaway is that they appear to be sticking with the £2.7 bn figure, which if correct would mean that the NHS is now treating twice as many people as it did a few years ago for the same cost*. And Alcohol concern are now going for broke, not only do they claim that the number admissions went up five-fold between 1995-96 and 2002-03 (they never revised up the earlier, lower figure of course) but that it will have trebled yet again between 2002-03 and 2015 (i.e. a fifteen-fold increase in twenty years, a compound annual growth rate of 15% at a time when alcohol sales are flat or falling).
* If you take their entirely made up figures and divide £3.7 bn cost by 1.5 m admissions, that works out at a princely £2,467 cost per admission, which seems a tad over the top for an X-ray, a bandage or whatever.
Monday, 14 February 2011
Fake Statistics Of The Day
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8 comments:
"Alcohol was the main or secondary cause of 207,800 NHS admissions"
And how and when did the reporting requirements change?
VFTS, your guess is as good as mine, but from the figures, it looks like we left the real world in about 1995-96 and ever since then they just make up the numbers.
No doubt one day soon they'll change the admission form to include the question "Have you ever drunk alcohol?" and then they'll be reporting that "80% of NHS patients are alcoholics".
Aside from the fact that it's total bullshit and a stomach pump & sending on their way with a good telling off does NOT cost £2,467 per admission.
How much is collected in alcohol duty?
SW, the last time I added it up it was about £12 bn a year alcohol duty + VAT on top.
Come on Mark, you know that this sort of thing is window dressing and not supposed to be taken seriously. The BBC have got to fill their website with something, FFS, it's not as if they can just put "Yesterday nothing happened" in big across the front page.
But alcohol consumption is falling in the UK overall. the trend is downwards so there is a hard core of alkies causing this problem. which is odd really.
Interestingly, the BBC seem to have noticed this themselves in a new article headed "Why is alcohol consumption falling?".
However, Mr Schenker is undeterred and is quoted as saying:
"There are still 10 million people drinking above the government's recommended level. And 1.6 million dependent drinkers. These are the frequent flyers into hospital, and they are not changing their drinking habits."
Yep, one in six of the population (men women and children) are drinking more than the government recommended amount. I think he's finally lost it!
AC, yes, half a cheer for that article, but the article also blindly assumes that 'alcohol related hospital admissions' are also going up, which is probably not true.
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