Alcohol interventions and support within hospital settings: PHE & CLAHRC resources

Two new resources supporting the commissioning and delivery of alcohol interventions and support within hospital settings have been released.

Developing pathways for referring patients from secondary care to specialist alcohol treatment

The new Public Health England (PHE) resource to support the development of pathways for referral and care and for alcohol dependent patients. Given the recently initiated CQUIN to incentivise routine alcohol screening via Identification and Brief Advice (IBA), hospitals will expect to identify a proportion of dependent drinkers and should ensure they can offer the best possible referral and support.

The main sections of the resource include:

1. Introduction
2. Important components of the pathway
3. Planning and developing alcohol pathways
4. Patients with co-existing mental health and alcohol problems
5. Further guidance

In 2014 PHE released a report reviewing the provision of alcohol services in England's hospitals, identifying that the majority of hospitals had at least some specialist alcohol provision, although delivery was found to vary widely and key issues such as integration with community services was not developed in many areas. The report followed an Alcohol Research UK report, A national study of acute care Alcohol Health Workers, found that services were 'frequently precarious, with limited management support, short-term funding and a lack of ownership from key agencies'.

Tackling alcohol misuse in NHS hospitals a Resource Pack

CLAHRC South London’s alcohol team has released a resource pack which aims to help NHS hospitals, clinicians, managers and commissioners with the three key approaches: 

• identification and brief advice (IBA) for all patients
• establishing an alcohol care team for patients who require further support and referral
• an assertive outreach response for people with complex needs that frequently attend hospital

Colin Drummond, professor of addiction psychiatry at King’s College London, who leads CLAHRC South London’s alcohol research team, says:

‘Hospitals have a real opportunity to provide excellent alcohol care to improve patient outcomes and reduce NHS expenditure in the longer term. They are also in a unique position to identify and help people with the highest level of unmet alcohol-related needs. We’ve produced this resource pack for clinicians and hospital managers to help them to develop hospital-based treatment and care and for commissioners to determine the need for different levels of alcohol treatment services.'

Download the Full report or Toolkit. See here for data on alcohol-related hospital admissions across England.