Former health minister calls for digital detox services to tackle alcohol harm costing NHS billions

Former health minister and addiction psychiatrist, Dr Dan Poulter, is calling for urgent change and for the government to introduce tech-enabled alcohol services, warning that outdated pathways are contributing to avoidable A&E attendances and repeat hospital admissions.

The call is in response to a new report published by detox social enterprise, Clean Slate Clinic, and supported by national addiction charity Adfam and the University of Sussex.

It shows that nine in ten people are drinking at clinically risky levels but don’t consider themselves as “heavy drinkers”.

The report, ‘Impact and barriers: a national survey of UK adults on alcohol dependence’, reveals a widespread “moderation bias” where culturally accepted labels such as “moderate drinker” no longer align with clinical risk thresholds.

When applied to the wider population, it means over 17 million Britons are drinking at dangerous levels without knowing it, according to the AUDIT C screening tool used by NHS England.

Dr Dan Poulter said the findings show how alcohol services need a fundamentally different, digitally enabled design.

He said: “It’s not about introducing more services in the health service.

“It’s about designing different services that reflect how alcohol risk is actually identified and how the NHS operates under unprecedented capacity pressures.

“Moving from self-identification to objective screening, in parallel to offering digital, community-based withdrawal services, will help people avoid reaching crisis point and subsequently placing avoidable pressure on the NHS and costing billions.”

Dr David McLaughlan, Clean Slate Clinic’s clinical director and one of the UK’s leading addiction psychiatrists, explained how alcohol dependency care has lagged behind other clinical areas in adopting digital-first pathways.

McLaughlan said: “We’ve seen virtual wards successfully reduce admissions in respiratory and cardiac care.

“Yet alcohol withdrawal, which has been estimated to cost society £27 billion a year, continues to be managed through inpatient stays.

“Digital pathways allow clinicians to monitor patients remotely during that high-risk window and intervene before they return to A&E.”

Dr Poulter, along with Adfam, the University of Sussex and Clean Slate Clinic, is calling for immediate reform of alcohol policy and service design:

“If we are serious about moving care out of hospitals, preventing avoidable harm and shifting from analogue to digital – the central themes of the government’s strategy for the NHS – then alcohol services urgently need to catch up.

“As part of the implementation of the 10 Year Plan, the government needs to introduce a doctor-led, tech-enabled pathway for alcohol withdrawal and early stabilisation, designed to prevent avoidable admissions and repeat A&E attendances during the highest-risk withdrawal period.”

Pia Clinton-Tarestad, who has lived experience and is now CEO of Clean Slate Clinic, added: “I know from personal experience how supervised, remote-based detox programmes can help patients get safe, structured treatment earlier, without disconnecting from jobs, family and daily life.

“Our evidence shows that the Clean Slate Clinic model can help the NHS cut readmissions by almost half, while increasing sustained abstinence from around 30 per cent to 70 per cent.”