The Liverpool John Moore University Centre for Public Health published the latest Alcohol Profile for England – http://www.cph.org.uk/showPublication.aspx?pubid=661

The lead headlines are a 65% increase in English hospital admissions in the five years to 2008/09 – which equates to an EXTRA 825 people admitted to hospital a day. Around 15,500 people a year die as a consequence of alcohol.

Across England 415,059 crimes were attributable to alcohol with 12.2 crime per 1,000 residents in London – roughly 10% of all crime.

One of the drivers for all this is felt to be the price and the availability of alcohol.

To see local representation of this date: http://www.nwph.net/alcohol/lape/ where you click on the map and then select and change the area to Southwark. Southwark is shown as significantly worse than the regional average for male mortality from Liver disease, male hospital admissions from alcohol. What I find even more troubling is that Southwark is significantly worse than the London average for alcohol attributable recorded crimes, violent crimes and sexual offences. What’s sad is this is repeated in Lambeth and Lewisham.

In Southwark we have Alcohol Licensing Saturation zones in a few parts of Southwark. I can’t help feel that we need all Southwark to be treated as saturated to stem this alcohol induced crime wave. That licences in Southwark need to find a way to stop price promotion of alcohol. That this should especially apply to shops and supermarkets.