ON several fronts, Scotland is showing signs of getting to grips with its alcohol problem. That it’s still a serious problem is evident from the latest statistics, which reveal that, in 2017-18, there were 35,499 hospital admissions involving 23,494 individuals. Shocking though these figures are, they’re slightly down on the previous year, which saw 36,235 admissions involving 24,060 patients. More impressive statistics can be found when considering results achieved by the Glasgow Modified Alcohol Withdrawal Score, a multi-disciplinary system identifying at-risk patients through a comprehensive, symptom-scoring structure.
The result, across NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, has been a 21 per cent reduction in average hospital stays and an 82 per cent reduction in alcohol-related violent incidents at Glasgow Royal Infirmary over two years.everal countries across the world are now adopting it.
On top of this, the Scottish Government has unveiled a 20-point “alcohol framework”, with Public Health Minister Joe FitzPatrick calling for a TV watershed for alcohol adverts and clear health labelling. Yesterday, he drew attention to the greater incidence of people from deprived areas being admitted to hospital with alcohol-related problems, pledging that the administration would not stand back and ignore such a situation.
Alcohol abuse in Scotland has no easy answers. We’ve been wringing our hands about it for years now, almost seeing it as inevitable, something to do with climate or poverty or culture or even genetics. But something can be done about it.
And, while change might seem slow or small or at times hopeless, we take encouragement from new initiatives and greater understanding. Between the Glasgow score project, the Scottish Government’s new alcohol strategy, and attention drawn on Monday by Castle Craig Hospital’s Dr Peter McCann to the particular relationship between drink and winter, the signs are clear of a determination to seek imaginative and practical solutions to this debilitating problem.
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