MORE money is being spent on hospital admissions caused by alcohol than on cancer and heart disease in East Lancashire.

Health chiefs are aiming to highlight the dangerous affects alcohol can have on drinkers in East Lancashire during Alcohol Awareness Week.

They have revealed that around 800 people in Blackburn with Darwen are admitted to hospital each year for conditions almost entirely caused by alcohol, while many other admissions are related to conditions at least partly caused by drinking.

In 2010 there were 4,500 admissions to hospital that were estimated to be related to alcohol use. This increased by 10 per cent from around 4,000 in 2009.

These admissions cost the NHS around £5million per year – more than the money spent on admissions for cancer (£4million) and coronary heart disease (£3million).

Meanwhile, alcohol-related hospital admissions continue to rise by up to 20 per cent across Blackburn with Darwen and the rest of East Lancashire.

And the North West has more alcohol-related hospital admissions than anywhere else in the country.

Blackburn with Darwen’s health watchdog, Coun Ron O’Keeffe, said drinking was a major problem everybody in society needed to take responsibility for and that the council was pushing for a minimum price on a unit of alcohol.

The Children and Health Overview Scrutiny chairman said: “If the Government would clamp down on supermarkets selling alcohol so cheaply that would have a major impact.

“A lot of people are drinking at home because it is so cheap and then attending A&E with these problems.”

Activities planned across East Lancashire during Alcohol Awareness week include:

An online survey at www.surveymonkey.com/whatsthedamage to assess the impact of your drinking

Signposted treatment services, articles and education tools at www.Facebook.com/lancashirecare

A daily online debate at www.twitter.com/lancashirecare

Awareness events in schools, colleges and town centres posted daily on Facebook and Twitter