ST HELENS has seen a 35 per cent increase in alcohol-related hospital admissions over 10 years, new figures reveal.

The borough saw 5,262 cases of people going into hospital due to alcohol for the year 2017/18.

This contrasts with 3,897 admissions for 2008/09 according to the statistics unveiled by Public Health England.

It is also a slight rise from the previous year, 2016/17 when 5,168 admissions took place.

St Helens also saw 100 alcohol-related deaths in 2017.

This is nine less than the previous year but a five per cent increase on the figure from 2008 (95).

In response to the figures, Eytan Alexander, chief executive of addiction treatment specialists UKAT, said: “The numbers speak for themselves; thousands of people in St Helens hospitalised because of alcohol and a hundred lost lives.

"It's time to admit that there is a problem here, and we call on St Helens Council to make better budget decisions this coming April and to invest more of their Public Health Grant into local drug and alcohol treatment services, as well as early intervention and awareness campaigns in order to support those most vulnerable.”

The figures showed that admissions across the North West reached almost 180,000 people and 15 per cent of all of England’s hospital admissions were due to alcohol.

The areas with the most amount of alcohol-related hospital admissions included Liverpool (12,269), Manchester (11,072) and Wirral (10,217).

Across the North West 3,790 died due to alcohol in 2017.