By Marjory Inglis, health reporter

More people left acute hospitals in Tayside and Fife with an alcohol-related diagnosis last year than at any time in the last decade.

The 10-year high was recorded in national statistics on alcohol-related hospital discharges published yesterday.

The depressing trend of increasing health problems related to alcohol across Scotland was highlighted as local hospitals are gearing up for their busiest time of year, clearing up the alcohol-related damage that occurs during the festive season.

The accident and emergency department at Ninewells Hospital, Dundee, is usually the first stop for people who have drunk so much alcohol they make themselves seriously ill. Some just need help for the immediate effect of too much booze, while others become seriously ill with liver damage and other problems caused by long-term abuse of alcohol.

“We are preparing for the busiest spell of the year,” said accident and emergency consultant Brodie Paterson at Ninewells.

“We will expect to see large numbers of people being harmed and harming themselves either directly through alcohol or the fact they have drunk so much their defences are down and they are more likely to fall and hit their heads or be assaulted,” he said.

The Scottish Government’s health statistics unit, ISD Scotland, yesterday published a plethora of figures relating to alcohol-related hospital discharges.

The numbers of actual patients will be fewer than the number of discharges, given that they record the numbers leaving hospitals after episodes of treatment and some patients will be admitted at different times during the same year.

Overall across Scotland there were 41,651 discharges from acute hospitals with an alcohol related diagnosis last year—almost half were aged 50 or over. Over the last five years, the discharge rate has increased by 7%.

There were 2239 discharges with an alcohol-related diagnosis from acute hospitals in Tayside last year—the highest number for the last decade.

The figures relate only to inpatients and day cases and take no account of those being treated in outpatient clinics with alcohol-related problems. Discharges from psychiatric hospitals are recorded separately.

In Fife there were 2281 discharges with an alcohol-related diagnosis from acute hospitals across the region—the highest number for the last decade.

As well as presenting a breakdown of figures relating to each of the NHS health board areas, ISD Scotland also presented the figures relating to local authority areas.

These show that Dundee had one of the highest rates in Scotland of patients being discharged from a psychiatric hospital with an alcohol-related diagnosis.

The latest available statistics for the year to April 2006 show Dundee with a rate of 128 per 100,000 was second only to Inverclyde with a rate of 166 per 100,000.

Angus had the lowest rate across Scotland for alcohol-related discharges from acute hospitals last year—326 per 100,000.