Dying for a drink

The rate of alcohol deaths in Greater Manchester is far higher than the national average but, as Helena Vesty and Richard Ault report, the town with the biggest problem is seeing hospital services reduced

- Helena Vesty and Richard Ault

THE rate of people dying because of alcohol in Greater Manchester is far above the national average - and the place where deaths are at their worst is seeing alcohol services in its hospital slashed.

The number of deaths caused by alcohol has hit a record high, with more than 1,500 people in Greater Manchester losing their lives to drink in three years.

These are deaths where health conditions are a direct consequence of alcohol, such as alcoholic liver disease. In all but one council area of Greater Manchester, the rate of alcohol-specific deaths is higher than the national average.

And in Oldham - where deaths are highest staffing in the Royal Oldham Hospital's alcohol care team is to be cut by half, the M.E.N. can reveal.

For the years 2021 to 2023, the national average across the UK was 15 deaths for every 100,000 people the number of people who die in relation to the size of the population.

In Greater Manchester, the rate was 19 deaths for every 100,000 people.

But in some parts of Greater Manchester, the problem is even worse, according to the latest statistics from the Office for National Statistics.

In Oldham, there were 56 alcoholspecific deaths in 2023, 41 in 2022, and 52 in 2021, a total of 149 deaths in three years. That's a rate of 23 deaths caused by drink for every 100,000 people living in Oldham, the 13th highest rate of more than 300 council areas in England and Wales, and the highest rate in Greater Manchester.