Press Release - Reducing Alcohol Harm: Health
services in England for alcohol misuse
29 October
2008
Alcohol-related ill-health is an increasing burden for the
National Health Service. Alcohol misuse costs the health service in
the order of £2.7 billion a year, but efforts to address it locally
are not in general well-planned, the National Audit Office reported
today. The Department of Health is however raising the profile of
alcohol misuse by providing information and guidance to underpin
local action, centred on encouraging PCTs to gauge their
performance against the rate of alcohol-related hospital
admissions.
Hospital admissions for the three main alcohol-specific
conditions (alcohol-related liver disease, mental health disorders
linked to alcohol, and acute intoxication) have doubled in the last
11 years. There were also twice as many deaths from
alcohol-related causes in the UK in 2006 as there were 15 years
before, increasing from 4,100 to 8,800.
Primary Care Trusts are responsible for setting local health
priorities. But around a quarter of PCTs surveyed by the NAO have
not fully assessed alcohol problems in their areas. Many PCTs do
not have a clear picture of their spending on services to address
alcohol misuse and its effects on health. PCTs have often looked to
their local Drug and Alcohol Action Teams to take the lead, but
these bodies focus primarily on specialist services for dependent
users of illegal drugs and alcohol. There is scope for the
Department of Health to provide greater leadership to PCTs on
alcohol misuse and the NAO report recommends a number of specific
measures to that end, such as guidance to help PCTs assess causes
and to forecast trends in the level of alcohol harm in their
localities.
There is evidence that preventive services, such as ‘brief
advice’ by GPs and health workers, can reduce alcohol consumption
and help to prevent longer-term damage to health and there are some
good local examples of this. From September 2008 the
Department has provided an additional £8 million in support for
such services. For people who have developed severe alcohol
problems, there are considerable variations between different
localities in access to specialist treatment services, and scope
for better integration of hospital treatment with follow-on
services such as psychiatry.
The Department has recently undertaken a series of new publicity
campaigns to encourage sensible drinking. Research has shown
that consumers tend to underestimate the amount of alcohol their
drinks contain and are not clear about what is meant by a ‘unit’ of
alcohol. Department of Health funding for such work was tripled to
£6 million in 2008-09.
Tim Burr, head of the National Audit Office,
said:
“Alcohol misuse constitutes a heavy and increasing
burden on the NHS. If services to tackle alcohol misuse are going
to make a bigger difference, Primary Care Trusts need to
understand better the scale of the problem in their local
communities. With its increased focus on the prevention of
lifestyle-related illness, the Department of Health could, for
example, do more to convince Trusts about the value of timely
advice to help people develop safer drinking
patterns.”
Notes for Editors
- A unit of alcohol is defined in the UK as 10 millilitres (ml)
of ethanol. For example, a pint of ordinary strength lager contains
two units and a standard pub measure of spirits has one unit. A 175
ml glass of wine at 13 per cent strength has 2.3 units and a 125 ml
glass of wine at 9 per cent has one unit.
- Press notices and reports are available from the date of
publication on the NAO website, which is at
www.nao.org.uk. Hard copies can be obtained
from The Stationery Office on 0845 702 3474.
- The Comptroller and Auditor General, Tim Burr, is the head of
the National Audit Office which employs some 850 staff. He
and the NAO are totally independent of Government. He
certifies the accounts of all Government departments and a wide
range of other public sector bodies; and he has statutory authority
to report to Parliament on the economy, efficiency and
effectiveness with which departments and other bodies have used
their resources.
Press Notice 44/07
All enquiries to Barry Lester,
NAO Press Office: Tel: 020 7798 7937
Mobile: 077748 181 692