Drinking alcohol was the main reason for 358,000 admissions to hospital in 2018/19 according to new figures published by NHS Digital.
The number of admissions is 6% higher than 2017/18 and 19% higher than a decade ago, according to the Statistics on Alcohol, England 2020 report.
Alcohol-related admissions accounted for 2% of overall hospital admissions, which is the same rate as 2017/18.
Men accounted for 62% of alcohol admissions, while 40% of patients were aged between 45 and 64.
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These figures are based on the narrow measure where an alcohol-related disease, injury or condition was the primary reason for a hospital admission or there was an alcohol-related external cause.
A broader measure that looks at a range of other conditions that could be caused by alcohol shows 1.3 million admissions in 2018/19, this is an 8% increase on 2017/18 and represents 7% of all hospital admissions.
This report also presents a range of information on alcohol use and misuse by adults and children drawn together from a variety of sources.
This report contains newly published data from the Public Health England Local Alcohol Profiles for England, which uses data from NHS Digital’s Hospital Episode Statistics.
