The number of patients admitted to hospital for overdosing on painkillers has doubled in a decade, NHS figures show.
Doctors say it is a ‘very worrying’ consequence of the pills being prescribed too readily.
There were 10,999 admissions in 2016/17 for poisoning by opioid painkillers and other narcotics, which include codeine, morphine and fentanyl.
This is up from 5,085 in 2006/7, although slightly down on 2015/16, when there were 11,660 admissions, the data from NHS Digital shows.
Dr Jane Quinlan, a consultant in anaesthesia and pain management at Oxford University Hospitals, said the ten-year rise was ‘very worrying’.
