Injuries and illness from grog cost us millions

WA hospitals are spending $76 million a year treating alcohol-related illnesses and injury, with cases in the metropolitan area rising significantly, a new report shows.

A Drug and Alcohol Office review shows alcohol-related hospital admissions cost $380 million in 2005-09, and that did not include costs in emergency departments.

In the five years, 66,817 West Australians spent time in hospitaland 2247 died because of their drinking, many from alcoholism, diseases such as liver cirrhosis, or falls.

Some had strokes, cancer or road injuries, or committed suicide, because of their alcohol use.

Although people living in remote parts of WA were more than twice as likely to be treated in hospital than those in major cities, the rate in Perth had increased significantly since a previous report in 2006.

Overall, 18 per cent of people aged 16 and over were found to be drinking at risky levels for short-term harm such as injuries, and 39 per cent faced long-term harm.

Mental Health Minister Helen Morton said though regional areas had usually had higher rates of alcohol-related injury and illness, fewer people in the Goldfields, Kimberley, Mid West and Pilbara were taken to hospitalbecause of these causes compared with four years earlier. "While it is encouraging to see figures drop in four WA regions since the last report, it concerns me that more people in the city are ending up in hospital because of alcohol-related causes," she said.

Mrs Morton said programs to address alcohol abuse appeared to be paying off in some regional communities and stronger measures might be needed in Perth.

"But in the Goldfields, Kimberley, Mid West and Pilbara, which remain the top four areas for alcohol-related hospitalisations, we continue to see rates significantly higher than the State rate, and this is still cause for concern," she said.

"We still have a long way to go in addressing alcohol in our regions, with people in the Kimberley 4.3 times more likely to be hospitalised for alcohol-related reasons."

In Perth, the number of people admitted from drinking was higher in suburbs in the north than those in the south, as was the rate of those drinking at risky levels.

There was a higher number than average of alcohol-related admissions for people in Belmont, Fremantle, Victoria Park, Mosman Park and Vincent.

People in areas including Canning, Cockburn, Gosnells, Kwinana, Melville, Mandurah, Joondalup, Nedlands, Swan and Wanneroo had lower than the average rate of hospital visits.