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Osborne raises alcohol duty, liver deaths up a quarter and nurses quit their jobs

In a quiet budget for GPs, the Chancellor George Osborne announced that alcohol duty would increase by the expected 2% above inflation, doubtless disappointing many campaigning doctors on the day that liver disease in England reached record levels.

The Guardian reported that heavy drinking has helped push up the number of deaths from liver disease by 25% in less than 10 years, from 9,231 in 2001 to 11,575 in 2009.

The first report from the new National End of Life Care Intelligence Network reveals that younger people, and those living in the north of the country, are increasingly dying from liver disease.

The network's figures show that one in 10 deaths among people in their forties followed a liver condition, and that the North West region had an alcohol-related liver disease death rate more than twice as high as that in the east of England.

British nurses may well be taking to the bottle following a finding that nearly half of them are ‘burnt-out' and want to leave their jobs.

The study, reported in the Telegraph reveals that British nurses are the second-most disheartened among 13 European countries, with only nurses in financially-troubled Greece keener to quit nursing.

The study found 44% of British nurses said they intended to leave their job in the next 12 months because they were dissatisfied.