Finalist
Supporting Alcohol Teams through the Global COVID19 Pandemic
with support from Ann Taylor, Adam Winstock, Liz Gilligan, Adrian Brown, Anthony Gartland
Summary of work
Kyowa Kirin is committed to non-promotional education in alcohol dependence.
Patients with alcohol dependency are a vulnerable group for whom easy access to services is key.
The COVID pandemic severely impacted accessibility and availability of alcohol liaison services as staff were redeployed to support with COVID – meaning patients with alcohol dependency were at even greater risk of poor outcomes.
There was never greater need to understand challenges that the pandemic brought to alcohol services.
Through remote meetings we spoke to healthcare professionals across the country to understand specific challenges they faced and to develop solutions that could help the NHS and patients whilst reflecting NHSE guidance:
Kyowa Kirin had an experienced team with a wealth of knowledge of alcohol dependency who were working from home.
The solution is relatively simple (although somewhat more complex to deliver) – utilise the manpower and experience of the Kyowa Kirin team to upskill healthcare professionals to deliver services that would usually be delivered by the Alcohol Liaison Teams to ensure at whatever point a patient entered the hospital, identification, screening and brief intervention could be delivered.
Judges’ comments
This was a very well-structured entry which had a clear understanding of the patient pathway and demonstrated new pain points and solutions. It addressed the particular challenges facing Alcohol Teams as they faced an unprecedented situation.
