BOLTON'S leading liver doctor is calling for the Government to increase the price of alcohol to reduce alcohol-related deaths.

Dr Kieran Moriarty, consultant gastroenterologist at the Royal Bolton Hospital, wants to see the cost of alcohol rise as a way to curb the binge drink explosion.

He said: "The key message is availability, availability, availability.

"The price of alcohol is much lower than it used to be compared to people's disposable income, so the only way to get around these problems is to increase the price, which should help the situation both locally and nationally.

"Excessive use of alcohol causes liver disease, fits, pancreatic disease, heart muscle disease, along with the injuries we see every weekend in accident and emergency. It affects every system in the body, right through from the young to the elderly."

Dr Moriarty's comments come as a study reveals raising the price of alcohol could dramatically reduce binge drinking.

The research, carried out by the University of the West of England, argues that while alcohol consumption has been decreasing in many other country's, it is rocketing in the UK.

In Bolton, binge drinking put more than 1,500 people in hospital between April, 2004, and March, 2005.

Alcohol could soon become the biggest premature killer in the borough, with men under the age of 75 being 52 per cent more like to die of chronic liver disease than the average British make.

Women are 35 per cent more likely to die of the same condition.

In just four years, the number of patients admitted to the Royal Bolton Hospital has rocketed from 33 to 53 a year and the trend is showing no signs of stopping.

In October, 2000, there were 26 men and seven women admitted suffering from chronic liver disease. By October, 2004, this had increased to 40 men and 13 women.

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