Doctors ‘failing to broach taboo of alcohol abuse’, LMC warns

PROBLEM drinkers in Hull are failing to get the help they need because alcohol abuse is still considered a “taboo” subject, a doctors’ organisation has warned.

Although the city has high levels of dangerous drinking, both GPs and patients are reluctant to discuss the issue.

According to the 2007 Hull Alcohol Misuse Needs Assessment, more than one in four residents (44,000) aged between 16 and 64 drink to a level which could cause them harm, while a further 8,000 (or five per cent) are dependent on alcohol - way above the national average of 3.6 per cent.

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But the failure to identify the problem, particularly in GPs’ consulting rooms, suggests thousands more may be harbouring drink problems.

There are eight specialist organisations in the city aimed at tackling alcohol abuse, but these are consequently under used.

A report to the health and social wellbeing overview and scrutiny committee at Hull Council said: “...the key challenges in terms of provision are still related to the low numbers who recognise themselves as having an alcohol problem and seek help before their drinking becomes too problematic.

“All services have capacity to treat more individuals than they are currently seeing.”

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It continued: “However, it’s difficult to identify ‘hidden’ populations that may not present through criminal justice or hospital routes.

“NICE (National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence) now advises that all health professionals should deliver alcohol brief interventions.

“However, not all healthcare services do, or are comfortable raising the issue with patients who may be seeking help for something different...GPs have highlighted that they feel uncomfortable delaing with possible alcohol issues.”

The point was accepted by one of the region’s leading doctors’ groups.

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Dr Russell Walshaw, chief executive of the Humberside group of Local Medical Committees, which represents NHS GPs, said: “There may be some GPs who know their patients well, when they are being consulted about something else are uncomfortable referring to alcohol issues because it’s a sort of taboo subject; patients don’t like to admit they have a problem. It’s quite common for people to say I can deal with it, I’m all right.

“The important thing is there are sufficient services to deal with alcohol problems available to the local population, and it’s really psychiatrists who deal with quite a lot of problems with alcohol and the question is, is there sufficient provision so that services aren’t overwhelmed?

“It’s about making sure people can be referred to agencies that can deal with problems and resolve them.”

He added: “Hull City Council is right to look at it because there are problems within cities and there are a lot of hidden problems that don’t come to the surface. We need to make sure there are sufficient services for patients with alcohol problems and this is probably one of the things that the new commissioning groups look at.”

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The report said that in the first six months of this financial year, only nine families had accessed Hartbeat, which supports families of people with an alcohol problem.

A report to the same committee almost a year ago found that city-based GPs could be failing to spot 75 per cent of the alcohol abuse cases that would be picked up by doctors elsewhere. It said Hull GPs were “three to four times” less likely to identify alcohol abuse than doctors in other regions.

The latest report also showed that the prevalence of opiate and crack users in the city is about twice the national average. The national figure is 8.9 people per 1,000, compared to 17.8 per 1,000 in Hull. The cost to public services over the next five years if problem drug users are not treated would be about £348m.

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