Reducing alcohol harm : health services in England for alcohol misuse, Department of Health

This report from the National Audit Office (NAO) examines the health service provision in England in respect of dealing with alcohol misuse.

It is estimated that more than 10 million people are now regularly drinking above the guidelines set by Government, with the consequent ill health and injury.

Between 1995-2007, hospital admissions for the three main alcohol-specific conditions - alcohol-related liver disease, mental health disorders linked to alcohol and acute intoxication - more than doubled, from 93,459 to 207,788.

In 2006, there were 8,758 deaths from alcohol-related causes, twice as many as there were 15 years earlier.

The Department of Health has estimated that alcohol misuse costs the health service GBP 2.7 billion per year, along with the social costs, such as crime and disorder, social and family breakdown as well as sickness absence.

The Cabinet Office has put the total cost of alcohol misuse in the UK economy of up to GBP 25.1 billion. The National Audit Office has set out a number of main findings and recommendations, including: a quarter of Primary Care Trusts (PCTs) had not accurately assessed the alcohol problems in their area; many PCTs do not have a strategy for alcohol harm or a clear picture of spending on such services; local provision for specialist services is not based on a good understanding of a communities' needs, with wide variations between localities; few PCTs collect detailed data on local patterns of alcohol misuse; money spent on identification and brief advice can be cost effective, helping to pre-empt the need for more expensive services; PCTs need to coordinate more effectively with other public bodies, such as the police, prisons and probation staff, as well as social services to identify and help people who are misusing alcohol; and, at present, no systematic means of promoting good evidence-based practice on alcohol harm across PCTs exists.