TWENTY-TWO people were admitted to Oxfordshire’s hospitals every day with alcohol related illnesses last year, according to government figures.

Oxfordshire’s hospitals were faced with more than 8,000 alcohol related admissions in 2009/10.

And one expert last night said she was seeing increasing problems with younger people.

The figure is almost 1,000 more than the year before, and does not include hundreds of people turning up weekly with drunken injuries at Oxfordshire’s A&E departments.

Nationally the figure topped one million for the first time.

Last night a consultant based at Oxford’s John Radcliffe Hospital blamed the pub culture and cheap supermarket deals for the surge in people with illnesses associated with drinking.

Jane Collier, consultant hepatologist at the John Radcliffe, said: “Before we would see people in their 40s, now we are seeing people in their 30s and have even had people with end stage liver disease in their 20s.

“I would say it is placing a huge pressure on the NHS.

“The supermarket culture does have a lot to answer for.

“These days you can go into a supermarket and buy a litre of cider for something like 80p. Wine in pubs is always served in 250ml glasses, which is a third of a bottle. And wine is much stronger than it used to be.

“Now the average bottle of wine is about 12 or 13 per cent, and can have up to 10 units in it.”

A recovering alcoholic, who asked not be named, agreed that more could be done by the government to discourage people from buying cheap booze.

The 66-year-old, from Cowley, said: “I think the fact that drink is so cheap does start the ball rolling for a lot of people.

“Having said that, alcoholics are addictive by nature.

“The way I was, I probably would have paid any price for my next drink.”

Statistics, provided by the NHS Information Centre, are based on patient’s postcodes and broken down by district council areas. The new figures come as nurses and doctors in emergency rooms battle to deal with an increase in alcoholics and people who have been involved in fights after drinking too much.

Louise Rawlinson, emergency department matron at the Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals Trust, said: “Alcohol is a growing problem for the NHS, not only for those who attend with a problem associated with drinking that day, but also those with longer term alcohol related conditions.

“We continue to see an increase in the number of patients attending our Emergency Departments at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford and the Horton Hospital in Banbury who present as a result of alcohol abuse or excess. The types of alcohol-related attendances we might see are falls, fractures, injuries from fighting, and also patients who have had excessive amounts of alcohol.

“Many require costly health care, including tests such as X-rays and scans, and treatments such as intensive observation, intravenous fluids and treatment of their injuries.

“Some patients are abusive and aggressive and that can be difficult for staff to deal with, but all staff in our Emergency Departments continue to provide a high standard of care whatever an individual’s personal circumstances.”