The NHS could be "crippled" by alcohol-related illness unless Britons change their lifestyles, a charity warned on Thursday.

In its report, "Your Very Good Health", Alcohol Concern found that one in six patients attend accident and emergency units with a drink-related injury, increasing to 80 per cent at peak times.

Alcohol is the cause of 28,000 hospital admissions each year, costing the health service as much as £3 billion.

A report by the Medical Council on Alcohol earlier this week found that alcohol consumption levels among professional women and junior doctors were particularly worrying.

Alcohol Concern is holding a conference of primary care trusts (PCTs), warning them of the cost to the health service of alcohol misuse.

Director Eric Appleby said that the conference would highlight the problem for the health service, which had in the past been underrated.

"These [predecessors to the PCTs] have consistently underestimated the impact of alcohol misuse on patients' health and failed to give alcohol the priority it deserves," he said.

"By drawing attention to the scale of the problems, and explaining how they might be tackled, we hope that primary care workers will be better equipped to prevent future problems and deal with existing ones."

The conference comes ahead of the transfer of local alcohol services to PCTs in April.

Chair of the all-party group on alcohol misuse and Conservative MP for Broxbourne, Marion Roe, told ePolitix: "It is absolutely vital that a properly funded alcohol strategy is produced as soon as possible by the government. It must not merely focus on a limited number of non-contentious areas, but must seize the opportunity to bring about real changes in our drink culture by taking a fully rounded approach that tackles all aspects of alcohol misuse.

"It is also very important that newly formed primary care trusts take on board the problems of alcohol misuse. In the past, GPs have not been very good at this but this must now change."

Liberal Democrat MP for South East Cornwall, Colin Breed, has signed an early day motion calling for a government alcohol strategy.

"I've been calling for a government strategy on the misuse of alcohol, which causes not only a considerable expense to our health service, but is a principle cause of much of the violent behaviour in the streets and in our homes," he told ePolitix.

"This report further emphasises the need for government action."