The NHS have released Primary Care Service Framework: Alcohol Services in Primary Care, designed to support commissioners, practitioners and providers in setting up alcohol interventions in primary care.
The document is likely to be welcomed across the country as increasing numbers of PCTs and local authorities are setting up Screening and Brief Intervention programmes within primary care settings, particularly with General Practitioners and in cases other settings such as pharmacies.
Previously there had been no specific frameworks to help local commissioners and practitioners set up such programmes, despite national guidance such as Models of Care for Alcohol Misusers (MoCAM) and Alcohol Misuse Interventions: Guidance on developing a local programme of improvement. The Alcohol Services in Primary Care Framework may be particularly useful in helping commissioners and practitioners:
- Scope and define suitable services
- Identify key agendas and frameworks
- Identify suitable evidence bases and local need
- Identify service objectives and intended health outcomes
- Set up suitable governance, monitoring and evaluation arrangements
- Identify suitable contract management
- Identify suitable review, variation and recommissioning process
- Find supporting documents, guidance, definitions and Read codes
Where commissioners may still be stuck is around pricing of services with no recommended or nationally agreed prices.
The new framework comes as part of 6 new Primary Care Service Frameworks falling within objectives of providing enhanced, localised service provision within the Practice Based Commissioning agenda.
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