BINGE drinking has led to a massive increase in the number of young women being admitted to hospital with alcohol poisoning.

Accident and emergency staff at Dorset County Hospital in Dorchester say that they are also inundated with drink-related casualties ranging from injuries sustained in drunken brawls to road accident victims.

They say the NHS is being stretched to the limit by the sheer volume of alcohol-related admissions – with more and more young women going through the doors of the Accident and Emergency Department.

In Dorset the number of female patients admitted to Dorset County Hospital NHS Foundation Trust with a diagnosis of alcohol poisoning has doubled in the past five years.

Figures obtained by the Echo using a Freedom of Information request found that between January 1, 2003, and December 31, 2003, a total of 11 female patients were admitted with alcohol poisoning at DCH.

Between January 1 last year and December 31 last year the number had risen to 20.

Staff nurse Fred Burnham, of DCH accident and emergency unit, said those figures were ‘just the tip of the iceberg.’ He said: “The injuries and medical problems that go with heavy and binge drinking far outweigh what they put on our services and other services around the hospital.

“The figures are massively under-reported for whatever reasons.

“They’re a lot heavier than we manage to record for plenty of reasons.

“Sometimes they get recorded by the injuries – such as head injury, facial injury.

“We have people falling over and getting wrist injuries, fighting and being unbalanced.

“We often have a lot of holidaymakers who are intoxicated or lubricated.”

He added: “There are road traffic collisions with drunk pedestrians being hit by vehicles or drink-drivers.

“The NHS has worked out that it costs tax payers about £20billion in NHS and police services.

“For the A&E alone it costs £500million.”

Mr Burnham said the peak time for alcohol-related problems was Thursday night to Sunday morning when it could be ‘70 to 80 per cent of the workload.’ He said: “As you can imagine it’s quite unpleasant to manage people in that state.

“They’re either aggressive or apologetic and tearful and it can be quite frustrating to get on with the job.

“But we have to treat everyone individually and ensure they’re not still at risk from injuries.”

Mr Burnham said he had noticed binge drinking increase among the 18-25 age group and younger.

He said: “We get people here intoxicated as young as 11 or 12.

“Young people getting out of their skull are hard to manage.

“Older groups in their 30s, 40s, 50s tend to be hardened dependant drinkers who’ve obviously got a lot of health problems arising from their habits such as liver problems, cancer, high blood pressure, impotence.

“It interests me because it affects everything – psychological, suicide, child neglect and abuse, it’s a massive problem.”

He added: “I’m sure it’s worse in other places and Dorset is quite ahead with the input we have with schools compared to other local counties.

“We’re quite high up in awareness of the problem and are starting to take measures to combat that.”

The figures come at the same time as research reveals that binge-drinking among young women is spiralling out of control.

The research, from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, found that 15 per cent of women regularly consume more than the recommended daily amount of alcohol of three units – or one-and-a-half glasses of wine.

It also found that the gender gap is closing, although men still drink more – with 23 per cent of men consuming more than their recommended maximum of four units a day.

For women, the overall level of binge drinking has almost doubled from eight per cent in 1998 to 15 per cent in 2006, with the increase most pronounced in women aged 25 years and older.