Children as
young as seven are being admitted to hospital with alcohol problems, an
investigation has found.
Shocking
new figures have revealed dozens of under-10s have been hospitalised suffering
from mental and behavioural disorders due to alcohol use.A Freedom of
Information request to all of England's 166 NHS hospital trusts revealed a total
of 380 children aged 10 or under were treated for alcohol intoxication between
2008 and 2012.
Worryingly,
67 of the trusts approached either failed or refused to the Freedom of
Information request, meaning the figures are likely to be even higher.The most
alarming incident was that of an intoxicated seven-year-old boy said to be
'addicted' to alcohol who was treated at a hospital in Sussex.The Brighton and
Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust described his diagnosis as 'alcohol
intoxication' and the reason for his attendance as 'alcohol
related'.
'The
primary diagnosis was a mental and behavioural disorder due to acute
intoxication with alcohol,' a report said.
For patient
confidentiality reasons, the trust would not divulge any other detail except to
state he was admitted to hospital in 2008.
In another
case, a 10-year-old boy was admitted to a hospital in Devon after drinking so
much he collapsed.
Meanwhile,
at least 25 girls and boys aged between seven and ten were taken to hospital in
England between 2008 and 2012 to get help for an alcohol-induced disorder.And
hundreds more children were rushed to A&E because they were drunk, though
not necessarily suffering from an ongoing issue with alcohol.
In some of
the cases it is likely the alcohol was consumed accidentally, although the data
held by hospitals does not always specify this.
In one
worrying example of child neglect, a two-year-old boy was rushed to a hospital
run by Peterborough and Stamford Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust last year after
accidentally drinking vodka.
And in
another case, a baby who hadn't even turned one was hospitalised in
Gloucestershire after sustaining a head injury while intoxicated with alcohol
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