The number of people admitted to hospital after consuming excessive alcohol shot up to more than 1,800 last year, the highest in a decade.

The figure is more than five times the average in the previous 10 years.

A total of 388 cases had been registered in 2016, up from 168 the previous year. Figures for 2017 were unavailable but those for the previous years ranged from a low of 132 people in 2008 to 393 people in 2014, bringing the average over a decade to 270 people.

The figures for last year were tabled in Parliament earlier in the week by Health Minister Chris Fearne in reply to a question by independent MP Herman Schiavone. Data for the previous years had also been tabled in Parliament.

The figures for last year were tabled in Parliament earlier in the week. Photo: Shutterstock

Mr Fearne told Times of Malta on Wednesday the spike in numbers was worrying, noting that the majority of drunk patients tended to turn up at the emergency room over the weekends.

“It does not matter whether they are Maltese people or foreigners, students or tourists. They are all patients and it is worrying,” the minister said, pointing out there was also a significant number of people who turned up at the emergency room but required treatment that could have also been given to them at clinics.

Mr Fearne had announced in 2018 that a medical clinic would soon be set up in Paceville to handle drunk revellers who were regularly crowding the emergency room.

Asked on Wednesday for an update, he said that, at the time, there were no concrete plans and the concept was “still just an idea”. He added, however, that while the idea to have one fixed clinic in Paceville was found not to be viable, there were other plans that involved introducing mobile clinics that would be moved to areas where people were likely to be consuming large amounts of alcohol.

Mr Fearne said the plan was to have the new clinic up and running in “12 to 16 months’ time”.

The decision to set up the clinic at the entertainment hub had been announced in the wake of complaints by staff of Mater Dei Hospital’s accident and emergency department who said they were inundated with people in need of treatment either due to alcohol or drug abuse.

At the time, the department was seeing as many as 70 ambulance movements carrying alcohol-intoxicated patients to the hospital.