Alcohol-related illness will soar in the next decade, experts said yesterday as campaigners warned that only one in 18 people with a drink problem get treatment.

Hospitals are already seeing dramatic rises in cases of liver damage, doctors said. "As a nation, we are drinking more than for 90 years and there is a lag between consumption and cirrhosis," said a report from the British Society of Gastroenterology. "Already we have seen a 350% increase in cirrhosis between 1970 and 1998, and this figure is 900% for those under 45 years of age."

Elwyn Elias, a gastroenterologist based at University Hospital, Birmingham, and president of the society, said: "There is a 20 to 30 year lag between what people drink and hospitals filled with the consequences. Binge drinking can have a sudden effect, but you can also kill yourself in 20 years, by drinking what some people consider a reasonable amount.

"The evidence is that drinking fell away in the 1930s and 1940s but it's been climbing since the 1960s and there's no sign of a plateau."

The society's warnings came as Alcohol Concern called for urgent action to address the under-funding of alcohol treatment services.

Two years after the government launched its alcohol harm reduction strategy, only a small proportion of the people who need treatment are getting it - even though every £1 spent on treatment for alcohol addiction saves the NHS £5 in dealing with alcohol-related illness and injury.

Alcohol kills 22,000 people every year, said the charity. "Every year alcohol services help thousands of problem drinkers turn their lives around, but the reality is that only one in every 18 people who need help get access to treatment," said Srabani Sen, the chief executive.

Deaths from diseases of the digestive system have risen by a quarter in the last 10 years, according to the society.

The incidence of colorectal cancer is increasing and accounted for 14,000 deaths in 2000. Oesophageal cancer has increased by 50% in the last 20 years, and the mortality rate from liver cancer has increased by 50% in 10 years. Britain's survival rates for gastric, pancreatic and colorectal cancers lag behind the rest of Europe, the report says.

Alcohol Concern says that 8.2 million people in England have an alcohol problem, and about 1.1 million of those are dependent on alcohol.

Some 1.3 million children are affected by their parents' alcohol problems. Alcohol misuse costs the economy £18bn a year.