The Alcohol and Substance Misuse Liaison Service which is managed by Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust, the county’s mental health and learning disability Trust, has received £123,000 in additional funding from Nottingham City Primary Care Trust (PCT) who commission these services.
The money was officially secured this week and will be spent primarily on getting two additional clinicians who will offer a service to clients through Nottingham University Hospital’s Emergency Department based at the Queen’s Medical Centre (QMC) campus. A third clinician will join the team from the existing Trust services.
Alcohol and substance misuse is a major cause of admission to the Emergency Department and inpatient setting in Nottingham with estimate figures suggesting this is 50% of attendances at the Emergency Department at QMC and 10% of all medical admissions being directly related to alcohol.
The Alcohol and Substance Misuse Liaison Service was set up by the Trust in 2001 and provides support and advice to people aged 18-65 with a substance misuse problem who attend Nottingham University Hospital.
The service expansion will aim to see 1000 new referrals in its first year amounting to 6000 face to face contacts. It will also provide clinical support to hospital staff through formal and informal training, outpatient clients twice a week, an alcohol related liver disease clinic at APAS and more partnership working with different partner organisations.
The Trust hopes to reduce the amount of hospital related admissions by having a more tiered approach to interventions for those with substance misuse problems and easier access to support. The expansion will be able to offer patients a clear care pathway to help them get the services and support that they need.
It is hoped that the new changes will be in place by the Autumn 2008.
Jackie Dennis, Service Manager, Nottingham Alcohol and Drug Team said: “We are delighted to have the funding secured for our proposal to dramatically expand this much valued service. The team and specifically Mark Holmes, Alcohol Liaison Nurse currently provide an extremely worthwhile and much needed service to support those with substance misuse issues in Nottingham and we are looking forward to building on this further.”
