MORE needs to be done to tackle liver disease and stop people dying prematurely, a top Bolton doctor has said.

Royal Bolton Hospital gastroenterologist Dr Kieran Moriarty has co-authored a paper calling on the government and NHS chiefs for more equipment and support to treat liver disease.

The research, published in medical journal The Lancet, shows that the number of people dying with liver problems has rocketed over the decades in cases which, if caught early, can be treated.

Dr Moriarty said: “Liver disease has always been the poor relation in this country.

“It has a stigma because of its relationship to alcohol, and is seen as a self-afflicted condition that doesn’t carry the same emotional appeal of cancer or heart disease.

“It means there is a 500 per cent increase in the number of liver deaths in the last 40 years, whereas the death rate from virtually all other main conditions — heart disease, cancers and strokes — has decreased over that time.

“The average age for people dying from those conditions is in their early eighties, but with liver disease it is 59.

“People are dying in the prime of their working life, and losing years of quality of life.”

The paper makes 10 recommendations which if implemented, Dr Moriarty argues, could mean more people living longer.

Suggestions include health warnings on alcohol packaging, implementing a minimum price for alcohol and supporting screening services at GPs and in the community so liver problems are identified quickly.

“Our hope is that firstly the government and secondly all of the major parties will take note of this report and decide to do something about it immediately, and certainly include their manifesto for the next election”, Dr Moriarty added.

“Royal Bolton Hospital is an internationally recognised alcohol care centre.

“There is tremendous work been done in the hospital on alcohol and liver disease, and excellent work done in primary care by Dr Stephen Liversedge and Lesley Hardman.

“We now need to work hard to detect liver disease at an early stage of primary care, and in particular have the equipment to investigate fatty liver disease — related to obesity — in primary care and in hospital.”