MORE than 8,000 people in Dorset were admitted into hospital for alcohol-related problems in just two years - putting an ‘inordinately amount of pressure’ on already stretched services.

As the county gears up for the festive season, revellers are being urged to drink with caution this Christmas in a bid to avoid hospital stays, injuries and crimes committed when in drink.

According to new statistics released by the Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC), 8,190 people in Dorset were admitted to hospital for alcohol-related problems in 2013/14.

This has increased from 7,910 people in 2012/13.

For every 100,000 people in Dorset 1,590 of them were admitted to hospital for alcohol-related problems in 2013/14, increasing from 1,550 people per 100,000 in 2012/13.

The number of male admissions totalled at 5,440 with females totalling 2,750 in 2013/14. This increased from 5,340 males and 2,560 females in 2012/13.

In 2013/14, 1,290 people admitted into hospital were from Weymouth and Portland, 1,640 were from West Dorset with 970 from Purbeck.

There were 1.3m violent drink-related incidents in 2013/14.

Dorset Police, which have launched a campaign against sex crimes and domestic violence over Christmas, are asking people to look out for their friends when out partying.

A spokesman said: “Look out for your friends during the festive period. If they are drunk and unable to make clear decisions, make sure they get home safely. Drunk does not mean consent.”

Adam Collinge, operations officer at South Western Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust, said: “Alcohol-related incidents are quite frequent within Dorset and most crews would be expected to see at least two or three incidents per week increasing significantly during a typical weekend.

“The patients that we attend to can be categorised in three ways.

"Chronic alcoholics who can present to us at any time of day seven days a week which can also be exacerbated by acute homelessness and alcohol-related medical conditions, patients with on-going mental health problems, including depression, that use alcohol when they are in ‘crisis’ to harm themselves with overdoses or more serious suicide attempts.

"Again, these can present to us 24/7 and social drinkers, which would include binge drinkers, who present predominately at weekends, but not exclusively, and drink far too much to what their body is capable of taking.

"The age spectrum is very broad with young teenagers binge drinking until they are physically incapable through to the elder population whose alcohol intake, although potentially not as much as the younger generation, is enough to cause injury through falls and thus hospital admission.

“All alcohol-related incidents put an inordinately amount of pressure on already stretched ambulance services and hospitals, but in a lot of cases the police are affected as well as alcohol affects attitude which in turn affects behaviour which can get out of hand.”

He said that for social drinkers, ‘education is the only real answer’ to keeping safe.

Twenty-three per cent of people in the South West who drink admitted to bingeing.

In line with the Government’s Alcohol Strategy, men are considered to have binged if they drank more than eight units of alcohol on their heaviest drinking day in the week before interview, and women if they drank more than six units.

Cllr Rebecca Knox, Cabinet member for communities, health and wellbeing at Dorset County Council, said: “Many people drink alcohol and stay within safe limits. But alcohol can cause you harm if you drink above recommended limits. This includes not only cirrhosis of the liver, but also a number of cancers, heart disease and stroke, high blood pressure, reduced fertility and depression.

“During the last few years, we have seen a drop in the amount of hospital admissions that are more strongly related to alcohol-harm, but there has been an increase in the amount of admissions where alcohol has been involved in some small part but hasn’t been the main cause. Some of this may be down to better reporting of these figures, and more needs to be done to understand this.

“The best way to reduce the chances of harm to your health from alcohol is to make sure you drink safely and not more than the recommended limits.

“Public Health Dorset has recently set up a new service, called LiveWell Dorset, which provides advice and support for people to reduce their alcohol intake.”

Anyone can contact LiveWell Dorset on 01305 233105 or visit livewelldorset.co.uk for help or more information.