‘ALCOHOL CENTRE NEEDED TO EASE PRESSURE ON STOCKPORT A&E’ - Local MP

Andrew Stunell MP asks NHS to set up an Alcohol Treatment Centre in Stockport to take the pressure off Stepping Hill's A & E, Ambulance Services and Police.

Figures recently released from the Health & Social Care Information Centre stated that nearly 8,000 alcohol related hospital admissions occurred in Stockport PCT in 2012. Of this figure 2,400 were wholly attributable to alcohol and 5,500 were partly attributable to alcohol.

Following the opening of an Alcohol Treatment Centre in the centre of Cardiff on Friday and Saturday nights, to take the pressure off A & E, ambulance services and the Police, the Secretary of State for Health has agreed to look into the possibility of piloting it elsewhere in the country.

Commenting, Andrew said -

"Stepping Hill's A+E has taken flak for long waiting times, but they are having to deal with 8,000 unnecessary alcohol-related admissions a year. That's not fair on them and the hard-working staff, and it's not fair on other patients with genuine problems that need urgent attention.

"I've written to ask Stockport NHS to look at the Cardiff scheme and see if a special unit in town would help lift the pressure off our own A+E."