Issue - meetings

A presentation will also be given.

The Board received an information report setting out progress in relation to the Alcohol Strategy Implementation Plan. A presentation was also given on alcohol related hospital admissions.

It was noted that one of the contributing factors towards alcoholism was often boredom and a lack of prospects and it was suggested that work should be carried out with local communities to ensure that there were volunteering and training opportunities for local people. This was particularly relevant in the current economic climate where people may be vulnerable to loosing their jobs and experiencing additional pressures.

The Board was advised that this was recognised as being an important issue and that measures were included within the Action Plan to address this. In addition work was being carried out with primary care providers to ensure that all of the pathways into care were able to recognise and appropriately refer patients with alcohol problems.

It was acknowledged that there were conditions where alcohol consumption was a contributory factor, rather than the primary cause of an admission, and this meant that it was often difficult to gauge how an admission should be classified. Consequently any statistical information may arising from this may provide a distorted picture of alcohol related admissions.  

It was noted that chronic admissions were not included within the data and it was suggested that in order for the data to be as comprehensive as possible the broader context should be provided.

RESOLVED:

That presentation and report be noted.