MORE than 60 children have been rushed to hospital in Hull after being poisoned by alcohol.
New figures released by the Department of Health show 913 people were taken to hospital in East Yorkshire with alcohol poisoning, including 63 young people under 18.
Of those, 25 were aged between 11 and 16.
Now, campaigners are calling for action to stop children turning to alcohol to escape their problems and to teach them about the dangers of drinking.
Heidi Ireland, a health worker at The Warren Project for people aged 16 to 25 in Hull, described the figures as "harrowing".
She said: "Young people are really struggling and there are fewer services around, so if they are not in a stable environment, a lot of this is down to escapism.
"It is so easy to get hold of alcohol and there is a culture of binge drinking.
"Without support, it is understandable that they are hanging about with their peers and drinking as it is just another form of them escaping the situation they are in."
Heidi Ireland, who ran a Health Beat project at the Warren tackling alcohol and substance misuse before it was scrapped because of funding cuts, is calling for better education to reach out to young people to explain the risks.
"There needs to be more education on the effects of alcohol and there needs to be better services and more counselling available," she said.
Karl Turner, MP for Hull East, said: "These figures are shocking. This is a serious problem.
"Kids need to be taught right from wrong on alcohol consumption so they will enjoy drinking responsibly in adulthood."
The Department for Health figures show hospital admissions caused by alcohol poisoning in 2012-13.
Some of the patients included in the figures are also suffering from mental and behavioural problems as well as the effects of alcohol abuse.
Hull Royal Infirmary's own figures show 28 people under 17 have been rushed to its accident and emergency (A&E) department, solely because of alcohol poisoning, since 2012.
Earlier this year, the Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC) revealed about 13,480 people in East Yorkshire were admitted to hospital with alcohol-related illnesses in 2012-13, including health conditions such as liver disease, as well as a number of cancers.
The Mail also revealed more than 200 young people had been referred to drug and alcohol misuse treatment services, including a child of just ten in Hull, while children as young as 12 were being treated for alcohol misuse in the East Riding.
Hull and East Yorkshire Hospitals Trust, which runs Hull Royal Infirmary, said although children were still being brought in with alcohol poisoning, most recent figures show an improvement compared with previous years.
Staff have treated 919 patients for the effects of alcohol poisoning since 2012, including 28 children under 17, but the numbers have been falling.
A trust spokesman said: "Alcohol misuse is a complex issue with implications that extend far beyond health and requires a range of organisations to work together to tackle and reduce this behaviour.
"Although we continue to see patients admitted to our hospitals with alcohol poisoning, this has reduced annually for the past three years."
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