Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to ensure that (a) GPs and (b) hospital staff receive adequate training to support those suffering from alcohol dependence.

The Government is committed to ensuring that those with alcohol dependence can access high quality help and specialist clinical support. General practitioners (GP) are responsible for ensuring their own clinical knowledge remains up-to-date and for identifying learning needs as part of their continuing professional development. This activity should include taking account of new research and developments in guidance, such as that produced by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, to ensure that they can continue to provide high quality care to all patients.

All United Kingdom registered doctors are expected to meet the professional standards set out in the General Medical Council’s (GMC) Good Medical Practice. In 2012 the GMC introduced revalidation, which supports doctors in regularly reflecting on how they can develop or improve their practice, gives patients confidence that doctors are up to date with their practice, and promotes improved quality of care by driving improvements in clinical governance.

The training curricula for postgraduate trainee doctors is set by the Royal College of General Practitioners and has to meet the standards set by the GMC. Whilst curricula do not necessarily highlight specific conditions for doctors to be aware of, they instead emphasise the skills and approaches that a doctor must develop in order to ensure accurate and timely diagnoses and treatment plans for their patients.

The Department will soon be publishing the first ever UK clinical guidelines on alcohol treatment. The guidelines include good practice recommendations for GPs and their teams, and for hospital clinicians. The guidelines can be used to inform training for staff working with people with alcohol dependence.

Additionally, the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities, and NHS England’s 10-year strategic plan for the drug and alcohol treatment and recovery workforce (2024–2034), outlines actions to be taken over the next decade to improve recruitment, training, skills, and career development and retention of specialist GPs working in the local authority-commissioned drug and alcohol treatment and recovery workforce. The strategic plan is available at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/publication/10-year-strategic-plan-for-the-drug-and-alcohol-treatment-and-recovery-workforce