Why does Sunderland have such high alcohol deaths?

A city's high rate of alcohol-specific deaths is due to a "perfect storm" of factors, researchers have said.

The latest ONS figures, released earlier this month, showed Sunderland had the highest rate of alcohol deaths per 100,000 people across England in 2023.

The average rate in England was 15 deaths per 100,000 people, whereas in Sunderland it was 29.3.

Newcastle University's Dr Kat Jackson, who is working with Sunderland City Council to better understand the issue, said the city's high rates of deprivation played a key role.

Sunderland is not a particular outlier in north-east England for alcohol-specific deaths.

The region scored the highest across England with an average of about 25.7 deaths per 100,000 people.

Nevertheless, Sunderland is still the worst performing.

Dr Jackson said the high rates could be linked to the most deprived wards in the city, which saw the highest rates of alcohol-related hospital admissions.

"We've got some of the most deprived pockets of deprivation in the country," she said.

She said shops selling selling cheap alcohol tended to cluster in those areas. "It's just very visible in Sunderland," she said.

"I think one of the challenges is that when an area is one with a lot of heavy drinking, it can become normalised and it can often be hard for people to see they have a problem with alcohol."

Deprivation played such a big role in alcohol-specific deaths for several reasons, said Prof Amy O'Donnell, also of Newcastle University.

"The people that we need to help are not just facing issues around their health because of drinking," she said. "They've often got physical health issues, insecure housing, they might not have any social support networks available.

"It's like a perfect storm."

Like other trusts across England, Prof O'Donnell said South Tyneside and Sunderland NHS Foundation Trust used alcohol care teams to help ensure those dependent on alcohol received "joined-up care".

It could include social workers and psychiatrists, she said.

But work the pair have done on evaluating the teams has found that while they show "a lot of promise", there is much they cannot tackle.

For that, government intervention is needed, Prof O'Donnell said.

She said the introduction of minimum unit pricing in Scotland in 2018 had led to reduction in alcohol-specific deaths in the country.

"Scotland used to be worse than the North East but now we are overtaking Scotland," said Prof O'Donnell.

Minimum unit pricing should be considered in England, she said.

Scotland had 22.6 alcohol-specific deaths per 100,000 in 2023, according to latest ONS figures, compared to 25.7 in the North East.

"There are so many passionate people on the ground in Sunderland that are helping people at that local level," said Dr Jackson. "What's driving the challenge is the lack of national policies."

In a joint statement, Sunderland City Council, South Tyneside and Sunderland NHS Foundation Trust and the charity Balance North East said the figures were "unacceptable".

"As health partners, we're all working together on addressing the harms of alcohol and reducing its consumption," a spokesperson said.

"We recognise how we need to see wider cultural changes so that alcohol consumption at harmful levels is less affordable, acceptable and accessible."

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said it was investing an additional £267m in drug and alcohol treatment in 2024/25, to ensure more people received better quality support.

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