MORE than 1,500 people in Northumberland were treated for drug and alcohol issues at the end of last year.

Figures discussed at the recent meeting of Northumberland County Council’s health and wellbeing committee showed that 1,048 people were in treatment for a drug use disorder and 473 for alcohol use disorders across the county at the end of 2018.

However, it was believed that up to 82 per cent of people who are potentially dependent on alcohol did not access treatment.

Northumberland currently receives just under £3.5m for drug and alcohol abuse, which is divided between seven organisations and schemes.

Councillors feared that the demand for treatment was continuing to grow which would result in increasing costs, coupled with ongoing uncertainty about the future of the public health ring-fenced grant, which is currently the sole source of public funding for specialist substance misuse services.

Over the past 12 months there had been an increase in referrals, with alcohol referrals up by 25 per cent and drugs referrals up by 19 per cent.

The figures were revealed by committee members who were provided with an update on the work undertaken to reduce the harm caused by substance abuse during the financial year 2019-2020.