Health chiefs cheered by liver figures

FIGURES on liver disease have offered some cheer for health chiefs fighting the curse of alcohol across the Lothians.

Statistics have shown there was a slight drop in the number of people discharged from local hospitals suffering from the disease last year.

However, the 1100 people hospitalised with alcoholic liver disease was still the second highest in the past decade and comfortably in excess of 20 a week. In 2008 there were 1200 discharges.

NHS bosses previously said that more than 20,000 people in the area were drinking "hazardous amounts" and that while new admissions for liver diseases were down, the number of people dying from liver disease was set to climb over the next few years.

GPs are already in the midst of quizzing tens of thousands of residents about their weekly alcohol intake in the hope of turning round the habits of some individuals.