New front in battle to beat bottle

With whisky baron Johnnie Walker as Kilmarnock's most famous citizen and the distillery perhaps its finest landmark, the town has always had a close relationship with drink. But maybe just a little too close.

So much so, the accident and emergency unit at Crosshouse Hospital is the first in the country to undertake a project which identifies potential problem drinkers in a bid to calm their alcohol habits before it is too late.

One in 30 deaths in the Ayrshire and Arran Health Board area is caused by alcohol poisoning, a figure which outstrips the national average, with one in every 100 hospital visits made in the region linked to alcohol in some way. This could include anything from car accidents to mouth and stomach cancers. Liver disease continues to rise.
advertisement

The scheme to identify those who misuse alcohol and get them into some sort of treatment or counselling is working well. Of 146 people referred to the hospital's alcohol liaison service in the past year, around half of those who accepted support are drinking less six months after first arriving at casualty.

People who are flagged up as being at risk from their drinking habits include those who have suffered falls or who have been in fights. Some are older people who have been widowed and started to drink too much without realising it. Others who have attended casualty at Crosshouse have been as young as eight years old.

The staff at Crosshouse Hospital also have "regular" heavy drinkers at accident and emergency. That is common to every hospital in the country, said A&E consultant David Chung, but at Crosshouse something can be done to help them. Dr Chung said: "The 18-year-old who has come one night might be one of our regulars in 20 years' time. If someone ends up in A&E through drink, it is a warning sign that there are problems ahead.

"It's obvious if someone is a chronic alcoholic but if someone actually had to come to accident and emergency through drink, it could be an opportunity to nip it in the bud before it gets out of hand."

More than 150 hospital staff have been trained to identify potential problem drinkers. Patients are asked, for example, if work has ever been missed through drinking or if friends or family have ever raised concerns about their habits. It is simple stuff, but the results are effective.

Dr Chung said: "Ten years ago people would be patched up and sent home. We have got to the stage now that we can step in and help. We can help people who might not think they have a drink problem but are putting themselves at risk.

"The culture we have in the UK sometimes trivialises the drinking culture but we don't want to see people back in A&E because of alcohol."

He stressed that everyone who came into A&E would be cared for - drunk or sober - but added that intoxicated patients sometimes harmed the hospital environment.

"We get used to it, rightly or wrongly," he added.

Drunk patients can also be hard to deal with, Dr Chung said. "Sometimes it can be very difficult. You can't reason with them so easily, they don't remember things and it is harder to persuade them it is a good idea to get medication, get their X-rays done."

Health Secretary Shona Robison visited Crosshouse Hospital yesterday to hear the results of the project and to thank staff for their work in this area.

She chose the visit to announce a "historic funding increase" for alcohol support services in Scotland. The government will spend £25m in 2008 on such work, a rise of £15m on last year. She said she would like to see more projects like the one in Kilmarnock. Just over £85m has been pledged over three years in a bid to tackle Scotland's endemic drinking culture.

She said: "Far too many Scots are drinking above the recommended amounts on a regular basis - often without realising that they are doing so, and without understanding the impact it has on their health. Today's funding will ensure people across Scotland have access to advice and support about their drinking and to treatment services where necessary."

The target at Crosshouse Hospital is to ensure a hazardous drinker is seen by a trained nurse within 24 hours. The right course of treatment is then decided, but the project has found that sometimes just being told of the health risks involved is enough to curb excessive drinking.

The project deals with people who are aged between 16 and 64 but it is hoped to widen the age group in the future.

For Mr Chung, the support can never begin too soon.

He said: "I wonder where the service is going to go. It's like sex education - when is it too early to start? You get kids going out sharing a bottle of Buckfast and they think that it is OK.

"We cannot afford to be complacent."

The Herald