Women Suffer Horrific Injuries Following Binge Drinking

In a report official statistics are showing that there is a massive increase in the number of women seeking treatment at hospital casualty units after being injured in drunken brawls.

A&E departments regularly have to treat facial wounds caused by "glassing", broken jaws and bleeding scalps, where girls have had their hair pulled out.

Late-night fights between women who have been binge-drinking are now a regular occurrence, often resulting in some horrific injuries.

With hospital staff already under pressure from the rising numbers of emergency admissions they are struggling to cope with a concerning increase in the number of drunken women requiring treatment. In some areas, the number of admissions has tripled in less than five years.

In a report in the telegraph, Don MacKechnie, the chairman of the British Medical Association's accident and emergency committee and a consultant at Rochdale Infirmary in Lancashire, was quoted as saying that casualty units were being inundated with injured young women, particularly at weekends.

"There has certainly been a big increase and some of the fights are really vicious," he said. "It is not just cuts and grazes, but fractured hands as a result of them punching other people, and broken cheekbones."

In Manchester an average of the 400 patients treated in A&E over a typical weekend, over 55 were women wounded in drunken and often extremely vicious fights as compared to a typical figure of less than 10 five years ago say a hospital spokesperson.

These increases are being blamed on an increasing tendency of groups of young women to binge-drink. This are women who are drunk hurting themselves by falling or having an accident but by far the biggest increase is the number of women who are injured in fights. Typically it used to be men but now women are turning up intoxicated and badly hurt often worse than the men.

The hospital say that the worrying new trend was "glassing" women hitting other females with glasses or bottles something that was never seen, but now it is a too regular event, the problem with this type of injury is it leaves scarring and often requires plastic surgery to minimise long term damage, adding even more to the already overstretched NHS.

The extent of the workload facing Britain's casualty units was underlined earlier this month by figures from the Department of Health showing that the number of admissions rose by up to a third in some hospitals in the second quarter of this year, compared with the same period last year.

The rising level of female violence has been blamed on the growing "ladette" drinking culture, often promoted by celebrity’s this has prompted some radio stations to rethink who they employ to present programes.

The Government has recently announced a campaign to stop the culture of binge drinking after statistics have revealed that almost a third of 18 to 24-year-old women binge drink.

The report produced for the Prime Minister's Strategy Unit estimated that treating illness and injuries caused by alcohol cost the National Health Service £1.7 billion a year and according to doctors, the amount spent treating women has increased dramatically.

A study by the Schools Health Education Unit in Exeter published last month found that teenage girls were now drinking more alcohol than boys.

Research by Lancaster University published this month will show that children as young as 13 are displaying such "ladette behaviour". Teachers interviewed in the study said that girls were drinking at earlier ages and had become aggressively assertive and arrogant.

Alcohol Concern, an organisation that campaigns to reduce alcohol abuse, accused the drinks industry of targeting women through advertising and the development of female friendly, attractive drinking venues

A spokesman for the Portman Group, which speaks for the drinks industry, denied that it glamorised alcohol, however. The Group recently launched a campaign 'Don't Do Drunk' campaign that focuses on a women's vanity, highlighting the damage drinking does to their appearance and their skin, as well as reminding them of the more serious risks of chronic disease and the dangers of being assaulted or having accidents while drunk.

sources: NHS: D of EE: Alcohol Concern: Portman Group: