Alcohol and drug deaths are rising in England and Wales, official data suggests.
Substance abuse deaths have risen to almost 13,000 in England and more than 800 in Wales in 2022.
Both figures represent significant increases compared to pre-pandemic figures, when the count was 10,511 and 667 respectively.
Experts have blamed excess alcohol during the Covid pandemic, as well as increasing abuse of opiates, including heroin and prescription drugs, for ruining the lives of Britons.
The latest figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show that overall one in five deaths in England and Wales were considered preventable in 2022, the most recent year for which full records are available.
Substance abuse deaths have continued to rise compared to before the pandemic, with 25.9 deaths per 100,000 in England in 2022 and 30.2 per 100,000 in Wales (file image)
This graph from the Office for National Statistics shows how preventable deaths fell in 2022 compared to the previous year, but remain higher than before the pandemic.
Cancer remains the leading preventable cause of death in England and Wales, but is still in overall decline. However, deaths from alcohol and drugs are increasing in both nations.
Preventable deaths are those that the ONS considers preventable or treatable among people under 75 years of age.
Examples include those for vaccine-preventable diseases such as whooping cough or those where a cancer patient could have potentially had a different outcome if they had received treatment earlier.
England recorded 12,916 preventable drug and alcohol deaths in 2022. This represents an increase from 12,549 the previous year and 10,511 before the pandemic.
Ian Hamilton, an addictions expert at the University of York, told MailOnline he suspected the rise is due to excessive alcohol consumption due to Covid lockdowns affecting people.
“The increase in alcohol deaths is due to excess consumption during the Covid pandemic,” he said.
“We know that a significant proportion of the population increased their alcohol consumption during this period, partly to cope with lockdown and stress.”
Studies have suggested that a quarter of people increased their alcohol consumption during lockdown and people with an existing alcohol problem are thought to be the most affected.
And the ONS’s own data has shown that alcohol-related deaths soared to an all-time high in the wake of Covid.
Dr Richard Piper, chief executive of Alcohol Change UK, today called the rise “very worrying”.
He added that while the pandemic had certainly played a role, other pressures had also contributed to the problem.
“The cost of living crisis has also had a huge effect on many lives, with heavy drinkers being the worst affected.”
Piper said more must be done to curb the negative impact of alcohol on people’s lives and called for measures such as minimum unit prices and restrictions on advertising.
Hamilton added that alcohol was only part of the picture, and that drug use remained a problem, particularly the abuse of opiates, both illicit and prescription, such as painkillers.
“The main drug contributing to deaths continues to be opioids, particularly heroin. There is a cohort of people who are aging and dependent on heroin and who are dying prematurely due to physically related problems,” he said.
Cancer remained the leading cause of preventable deaths in the ONS report.
England recorded 37,006 such deaths in 2022, while Wales recorded 2,536.
While this is an overall decline since 2001, when combined preventable deaths from the disease were around 43,000, experts said delays in NHS cancer treatment meant too many people were dying unnecessarily.
Data from NHS England shows that only 66.6 per cent of cancer patients in April started treatment within 62 days of their original referral. The goal is 85 percent.
Across the border in Labour-governed Wales, only 60.5 per cent of cancer patients started treatment within 62 days, compared to a target of 75 per cent.
Professor Karol Sikora, an oncologist with more than 40 years’ experience, said that while the overall reduction in deaths was due to decades of improvement in cancer care, there was still work to be done.
He said many more lives could be saved if the NHS not only met its cancer targets but reformed them.
“The greatest benefit will come from accelerating the time from diagnosis to first treatment,” he added.
“The time frame of 62 days from diagnosis to treatment goal is not appropriate; it should be 14 days.”
ONS overall data for 2022 showed there were 117,498 preventable deaths in England and 8,114 in Wales.
This is a reduction from the previous year, when England recorded 130,641 such deaths and Wales 8,854.
However, preventable deaths remain higher than in 2019, the last year of data before the Covid pandemic broke out.
Figures for that year recorded just 108,330 preventable deaths in England and 7,729 in Wales.
Commenting on the overall avoidable mortality figures, Veena Raleigh, a senior fellow at The King’s Fund think tank, said the data was “damning”.
“This is both a damning criticism of the quality of our public health policies and healthcare services, and further evidence of the poor and deteriorating health status of the population,” he said.
‘Of the 9.4 million working-age adults who are not working, 2.8 million of them cannot work due to a long-term illness.
‘With the NHS waiting list for treatments over seven million, including more than 400,000 people waiting for potentially life-saving cardiac care, and long waits to see a GP, the forecast for improving health population in the short and medium term looks bleak. ‘
He added that cuts to public health budgets and the “under-resourced” NHS were having devastating consequences.
“This heavy burden of preventable disease and mortality has devastating consequences for individuals, families, communities and the economy,” he said.
“Preventing poor health and reducing premature deaths is undoubtedly one of the greatest challenges of our time.”