Hospital staff gets online alcohol course

An online alcohol awareness course has been developed to help medical staff assist patients in adopting healthier drinking habits, reports BBC.

The e-learning course was created for hospital staff in Portsmouth, UK, and is now available nationally on the Alcohol Learning Centre Web site.

At least 4 000 people a year are admitted to hospital due to drinking in Portsmouth.

The vast majority of these admissions are for chronic conditions, such as hypertension and heart disease, and are estimated to cost the National Health Service (NHS) £2.7 billion per year, says AboutMyArea.

Often, harm is incurred by people who do not realise that their drinking may be putting their health at risk.

About five minutes of Alcohol Identification and Brief Advice (Alcohol IBA) can cause one in eight recipients to reduce their alcohol consumption, and this can have an appreciable impact on alcohol-related harm, hospital admissions and NHS costs, according to AboutMyArea.

In order for this impact to be optimised, Alcohol IBA needs to be delivered on a large scale. This means ensuring that health professionals in all aspects of the NHS are equipped to identify those whose health could be at risk from drinking, and to deliver brief advice.

The course is available to staff at any hospital via the Internet.