Southampton a city in the grip of alcohol (From Daily Echo)

Southampton a city in the grip of alcohol

3:18pm Saturday 10th May 2008 in

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A SERIES of hard hitting reports point towards Southampton as a city ravaged by alcohol.

Today the Daily Echo can reveal that seventy per cent of people rushed to Southampton General Hospital's A&E department on Friday and Saturday nights are there with drink related injuries and illnesses.

This causes massive problems for staff as their resources are stretched to breaking point.

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Click here to read about thousands of city drinkers being screened for liver disease

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Also, throughout last year more than 1,000 people were admitted to the General with alcohol related liver disease, further adding to the burden that excessive drinking puts on the health service.

Further more, another report charts the city as the third worst in the country for booze-fuelled violence.

Only Hull and London fared worse than Southampton in the report, which ranked 354 local authorities across the nation.

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Click here to read about Southampton's top cop hoping to shake the city's reputation for booze-fulled problems

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In response, Southampton's newly appointed police chief has vowed that his top priority is to rid the city of its booze blight.

Pubs and clubs have also been challenged to do their bit.

They have been urged to implement new chill-out hours, to calm down revellers before they head home, to prevent any violence from spilling out on to the city's streets in the early hours of the morning.

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Click here to read about plans to calm revellers down with chill-out music

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• The Daily Echo today investigates the reports and what they mean for Sotonians.

To read the indepth reviews, simply click the links above and below.