More people are being taken to hospital in Shropshire for alcohol-related conditions, new figures show.

There were 1,376 alcohol-related hospital admissions in Shropshire between April 2010 and April 2011, according to the data. There was an 18 per cent rise in cases in the county this year alone.

That compares to 1,166 admissions the previous year and is more than double the number seen in 2002/3, when just 641 cases were reported.

At Telford’s Princess Royal Hospital, 1,522 hospital admissions were related to alcohol in 2010/11.

A spokesman for The Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust, which runs the hospital, said: “The health and social problems associated with alcohol consumption continue to be an area the NHS is keen to address nationally and locally.”

In England in 2002/03, there were 926 admissions per 100,000 people for conditions attributable to alcohol, rising to 1,898 in 2010/11. In 2009/10, the figure was 1,743 per 100,000.

London has seen the biggest jump in the last year, of 14 per cent, followed by the East of England with a 10 per cent increase.

The figures have been published by the North West Public Health Observatory in its Local Alcohol Profiles for England.

Shadow public health minister Diane Abbott said the Government needed to ‘get a grip’ on binge-drinking.

Ms Abbott said: “The alarm bells should be ringing with the publication of these figures. It is clear that this Government is rapidly pushing us towards a binge-drinking crisis.

“A recent report predicted that binge-drinking will cost the NHS £3.8 billion by 2015, with 1.5 million A&E admissions a year.”

Health Secretary Andrew Lansley said: “These figures are disturbing evidence that, despite total consumption of alcohol not increasing recently, we have serious problems with both binge-drinking and long-term excessive alcohol abuse in a minority of people.”